LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


NOV  2  I  2002 


THEOLOGICAL  mmm 


Thirty  Years  in  Lane 


-AND- 


OTHER  LANE  PAPERS. 


BY  EDWARD  D.  MORRIS, 


Professor   of   Church    History,   1867-74, 
Professor   of    Systematic   Theology,  1874-97. 


Walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round  about  her  ; 

Tell  the  towers   thereof  : 

Mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks,  consider  her  palaces, 

THAT   YE    MAY    TELL    IT    TO    THE    GENERATION    FOLLOWING. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


Cincinnati,  O,,  December  8th,  1896. 
The  Rev.  E.  D.  Morris,  D.D,,  LL.D., 

Dear  Brother  : 

The  Lane  Club  has  heard 
with  pleasure  your  paper  on  *'  Thirty  Years  in 
Lane."  It  is  their  judgment  that  this  paper  and 
others  which  you  have  prepared  on  the  history 
of  the, Institution  are  worthy  of  preservation  in 
permanent  form. 

The  undersigned,  therefore,  acting  in  be- 
half of  the  Club,  and  under  their  appointment, 
request  that  you  place  such  papers  as  you  may 
choose  in  their  hands,  to  be  published  by  them 
as  a  souvenir  of  your  retirement  from  your  life 
of  active  service  as  a  Professor  in  Lane  Semin- 
ary. 

Respectfully, 

J.   N.   Ervin. 
W.  P.  Miller. 


Columbus,  O.,  December  31st,  1896. 
Rev.  J.  N.  Ervin  and  Rev.  W.  P.  Miller, 

Beloved  Pupils  and  Brethren  :  —  In  grateful 
response  to  the  request  presented  by  the  Lane 
Club,  through  3^ou  as  their  committee,  I  place 
in  your  hands  the  paper  recently  read  be- 
fore the  Club,  entitled  ''Thirty  Years  in  Lane,'' 
in  the  hope  that  it  will  be  kindly  read  by  many 
Alumni  and  others  as  in  some  sense  a  record, 
not  merely  of  my  own  prolonged  service  as  pro-, 
fessor,  but  also  of  the  history  of  our  beloved 
Seminary  during  the  latter  half  of  its  existence 
as  a  theological  institution  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church. 

In  accordance  with  your  suggestion  I  have 
appended  the  following  papers  prepared  at  var- 
ious times,  which  wi^l  contribute  something 
further  toward  such  a  history,  namely  : 

Leaves    from    the    Early    History     of 
Lane. — A  paper  read  at  the  fortieth  anniversary 
of   the  Seminary,  November,   1869  ;  in  conjunc- 
tion    with    the    Reunion    of     the     Presbyterian 
-  Church. 

Historical  Sketch  of  Lane. —  An  ad- 
dress delivered  before  the  Centennial  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,'  at  Phila- 
delphia, May,  1888. 

The  Doctrinal  Platform  of  our 
Church. — An  address  delivered  at  the  opening 
of  the  Seminary  year,   September,  1882. 


The  Theoi.ogians  of  Lane.  —  A  paper 
read  by  appointment  before  the  Club,  at  the 
sixtieth  anniversary  of  the  Seminary,  December 
1889. 

Memorial  Tribute  to  Professor  Allen. 
—  Presented  to  the   Club,   December,   1887. 

Memorial  Address  on  Professor  Evans. 
— Delivered  before  the  Club,  January,  1893. 

I  trust  that  these  papers,  selected  from  a 
considerable  number  of  manuscripts  and  printed 
documents,  written  on  various  occasions,  in  the 
interest  of  the  Seminary,  may  be  of  some  value 
in  the  way  of  preserving  in  some  measure  its 
remarkable  and  precious  history,  and  of  stimu- 
lating the  affection  of  those  wlio  have  studied 
within  its  walls,  and  the  confidence  and  devotion 
of  its  generous  friends. 

Your  teacher  and  friend, 

Edward   D.   Morris. 


[The  formal  resignation  of  Professor  Morris,  tendered  in  May, 
18M6,  and  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  thereon,  may,  In  view 
of  their  biographic  and  historic  value,  be  properly  incorporated  in 
this  memorial  volume.— Coinmitlee  on  Publication  ] 

The  Letter  of  Resignation. 


To  THE  Board  of  Trustees  of 
Lane  Theological  Seminary. 
Brethren: — In  1863  I  became  a  Trustee  of 
the  Institution  now  under  your  charge.  During 
the  winter  of  1864-65,  while  still  a  pastor,  I 
gave  instruction  here  for  several  months  in  the 
department  of  Homiletics.  In  October,  1867, 
I  was  elected  Pi-ofessor  of  Biblical  Exegesis, 
but  on  the  following  day  was  transferred  to  the 
chair  of  Church  History.  In  1870  I  was  again 
elected  Trustee  in  order  that  I  might,  in  an 
emergency  which  had  arisen,  serve  also  as 
Treasurer  and  Superintendent.  In  1874  I  was 
transferred  to  the  chair  of  Systematic  Theology, 
and  for  twenty-one  years  have  held  that  posi- 
tion. My  connection  with  the  Seminary  in 
these  various  ways  now  covers  quite  one  half  of 
the  entire  period  of  its  existence  as  a  theologi- 
cal institution. 

Of  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  whom  I  owe 
my  first  election  as  Professor,  your  present 
President  is  the  only  member  remaining  in 
office  ;  most  of  the  other  members  have  passed 
from  life.      Of  those  who  voted  for  my  transfer 


Vlll  INTRODUCTORY. 

to  the  chair  of  Theology  in  1874,  but  one  other 
member  remains.  Within  this  period  six  Pro- 
fessors have  died,  one  holding  an  emeritus  rela- 
tion, the  others  in  active  service,  and  all  but 
one  several  years  younger  than  myself  at  their 
death.  Seven  Professors  have  resigned  their 
chairs  ;  and  since  July,  1893,  I  have  been  the 
only  inaugurated  Professor  in  the  institution, 
standing  alone  in  a  sphere  where  everything 
about  me  has  been  passing  through  almost  in- 
credible change. 

It  is  not  needful  that  I  should  detail  my  en- 
deavors to  serve  the  Seminary  in  the  two  de- 
partments of  instruction  successively  assigned  to 
me.  My  beloved  colleague,  recentl}'-  deceased, 
for  whom  the  chair  of  Church  History  may  be 
said  to  have  been  created,  had  during  the  four 
years  preceding  my  election,  done  admirable 
work  in  that  department — work  to  which  it  be- 
came my  privilege  for  seven  years  thereafter  to 
give  further  expansion  and  prominence,  espe- 
cially in  the  line  of  the  History  of  Sacred  Doc- 
trine. During  these  years  my  studies  in  that 
line  led  me  to  accept  afresh,  with  matured  con- 
viction and  with  increasing  earnestness,  that 
type  of  Reformed  or  Calvinistic  Theology  in- 
culcated here'  by  my  honored  predecessors, 
Beecher  and  Allen  and  Nelson,  and  represented 
elsewhere  by  such  men  as  my  beloved  teacher, 
Dr.  Hickok,  of  Auburn  Seminary,  and  the  re- 
vered Professor  Henry  Boynton  Smith,  of  Union 
Seminary.  And  when  the  unanimous  voice  of 
the  Board  called  me  to  serve  in  that  depart- 
ment, I  esteemed  it  alike  my  duty  and  my 
privilege  to  uphold,  as  far  as  I  was  able,  the 
historic    teachings    and    best    traditions    of    the 


INTRODUCTORY.  IX 

Seminary,  and  to  inculcate  upon  the  minds  of 
the  young  men  committed  to  my  charge  those 
clear,  strong,  harmonious,  practical  conceptions 
of  divine  truth  which  I  had  received  while  sitting 
at  the  feet  of  such  sainted  teachers. 

But  inasmuch  as,  for  years  previous  to  that 
transfer,  the  two  bodies  separated  by  the  schism 
of  1837  had  been  united  again  on  equal  terms 
in  one  Church,  it  also  became  my  duty  and  my 
privilege  to  recognize  and  specially  to  respect 
other  types  of  Calvinistic  theology  held  and 
taught  in  some  other  Seminaries  of  the  united 
denomination.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  Lane 
had  shown  its  allegiance  to  the  Union  in  an 
eminent  way  by  being  the  first  among  these 
Seminaries  to  elect  and  provide  for  a  Professor 
from  the  other  body,  and  also  by  electing  for 
almost' every  vacancy  that  occurred,  (nine  with- 
in five  years, )  a  representative  Trustee  from 
the  same  quarter.  In  harmony  with  this  irenic 
policy,  while  still  adhering  to  my  cherished 
convictions  and  belief,  I  have  never  given  theo- 
logical instruction  here  in  any  dogmatic  or  par- 
tizan  spirit,  but  rather  even  at  the  risk  of  seem- 
ing to  be  less  positive,  too  indulgent  to  opposite 
opinion  than  I  ought,  have  laid  the  main  stress 
habitually  on  those  elements  of  generic  and  es- 
sential Calvinism  in  which  all  who  hold  to  our 
Confession  of  Faith  are  in  fact  substantially 
agreed.  To  that  Confession,  (especially  as  re- 
cently interpreted  and  revised, )  I  have  been 
faithful  from  first  to  last  as  containing  more 
fully  than  any  other  Protestant  symbol  the  sys- 
tem of  doctrine  taught  in  the   Holy  Scriptures. 

My  share  in  the  general  administration  of 
the  Seminary  has  always  been  larger  than  I 
have  desired.     Whenever  any  such  service  was 


X  INTRODUCTORY. 

to  be  undertaken  for  the  advancement  of  the  in- 
stitution in  whatever  direction,  I  have  never 
been  unwilling  to  face  my  full  share  whether  of 
labor  or  of  responsibility.  How  often  and  how 
regretfully  I  have  turned  aside  to  this  end  from 
loved  studies,  and  from  the  process  of  personal 
preparation  for  the  professorships  I  was  ap- 
pointed to  fill,  is  known  only  to  myself,  and  to 
the  Master.  Many  of  the  severer  duties  inci- 
dent to  the  general  administration,  such  as  the 
discipline  of  unfaithful  students,  have  especially 
within  the  last  twenty  years  fallen  very  largely 
upon  me. 

My  labors  in.  furtherance  of  the  financial 
interests  of  the  Seminary  have,  until  within  a 
comparatively  recent  period,  been  continued 
without  intermission.  Bringing  with  me  when 
I  came  the  legacy  of  a  beloved  parishioner,  the 
largest  legacy  with  one  exception  in  the  history 
of  the  Institution,  I  have  conscientiously  striven, 
year  by  year,  publicly  and  privately,  to  increase 
the  General  Endowment  Fund,  and  the  Scholar- 
ship and  Library  Funds  ;  to  secure  contributions 
for  the  reconstruction  of  some  buildings  and  the 
erection  of  others,  especially  the  present  Semi- 
nary Hall  ;  and  to  help  otherwise  in  providing 
adequate  financial  resources  for  the  support  of 
teachers  and  students,  and  for  the  general  ad- 
vancement of  the  Seminary  in  all  its  material 
interests.  It  is  useless  to  say  that  I  speak  of 
this  in  no  temper  of  boastfulness,  but  simply  as 
an  index  of  my  abiding  love  and  devotion. 

During  this  long  period  I  have  had  occasion 
to  realize  that  in  such  a  position  as  this,  no 
amount  of  effort  or  sacrifice  can  protect  the  oc- 
cupant from  trial.  From  the  beginning  there 
were   difficulties    to    be    confronted,    embarrass- 


INTRODUCTORY.  Xl 

ments  to  be  overcome,  oppositions  to  be  faced, 
which  were  enough  to  try  abundantly  both  faith 
and  patience.  Without  referring  speciiically  to 
any  of  these,  I  may  now  confess  that  more  than 
once  or  twice  during  these  years  nothing  but 
the  sternest  sense  of  duty  to  a  precious  institu- 
tion, beleaguered  with  perils  and  in  great  need, 
has  kept  me  from  surrendering  a  service  whose 
toils  and  vicissitudes  have  at  times  quite  out- 
weighed its  advantages.  That  I  have  not  yielded 
to  any  such  impulse  has  been  due  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  divine  grace  which,  having 
placed  me  here  for  some  good  purpose,  has  en- 
dued me  with  strength  to  live  and  labor  on 
through  whatever  trial,  until  that  purpose  should 
be  accomplished.  Next  to  this  divine  help,  it 
has  been  due  to  the  wonderful  support  which  in 
such  dark  hours  I  have  received  from  trustees, 
from  alumni  older  and  younger,  from  the  sev- 
eral classes  of  students,  and  from  those  old  and 
tried  friends  of  the  Seminary  who  have  given  to 
it  the  bulk  of  its  endowment,  and  who  have 
never  ceased  to  give  it  also  their  love  and  loy- 
alty, and  their  sustaining  prayers. 

Cheered  from  time  to  time  by  such  evi- 
dences of  regard  and  confidence,  I  have  remained 
at  my  post  for  nearly  a  generation,  though  for 
some  years  realizing  that  my  long  day  of  labor 
was  drawing  toward  its  close.  At  no  time  dur- 
ing the  last  five  years  would  such  a  close  have 
been  unwelcome,  whenever  it  could  be  reached 
without  detriment  to  the  Seminary.  And  when 
in  1891  the  first  gusts  appeared  of  that  wild 
cyclone  which  afterwards  so  nearly  wrecked  the 
institution,  distracting  and  dividing  its  friends, 
giving  opportunity  to  its  enemies,  checking  the 
flow  of  sympathy  and  of    resources,  and    reduc- 


Xll  INTRODUCTORY. 

ing  the  number  of  students  to  the  lowest  point 
in  its  history,  it  became  my  supreme  desire  and 
purpose  to  escape  at  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment from  the  "windy  storm  and  tempest."  On 
one  side  I  found  myself  unable,  after  the  most 
thorough  investigation  possible  to  me,  to  accept 
and  approve  certain  views  concerning  the  Scrip- 
tures advanced  by  some  of  my  colleagues, 
though  cherishing  all  the  while  unabated  faith 
in  their  personal  loyality  to  the  Divine  Word. 
On  the  other  side,  believing  (as  I  still  believe,  ) 
that  the  matters  in  question  could  best  be  set- 
tled, not  in  the  courts  of  the  church  and  amid 
the  heats  of  judical  controversy,  but  rather  in 
the  arena  of  free  and  brotherly  discussion,  it 
was  impossible  for  me  to  join  hands  or  even 
sympathize  with  those  who  held  and  carried  out 
the  opposite  opinion.  Standing  thus  in  a  posi- 
tion where,  as  I  was  painfully  aware  from  the 
beginning,  I  could  only  bring  down  upon  my- 
self the  criticism  and  possibly  the  enmity  of 
both  parties  in  the  rising  conflict,  I  was  yet 
convinced  more  and  more  that  in  this  attitude 
alone  I  could  best  subserve  the  interests  of  the 
Seminary  thus  brought  into  so  grave  a  peril.  And 
in  such  a  dilemma,  it  became  my  duty,  as  I  sup- 
posed, to  suppress  for  the  time  my  growing  de- 
sire for  retirement,  and  simply  to  hold  on  and  on 
until  God  should  open  the  way  more  clearly  for 
my  withdrawal. 

I  have  no  occasion  to  refer  in  detail  to  the 
sad  events  that  followed.  Just  at  the  beginning 
of  the  agitation,  one  Professor  had  been  con- 
strained to  retire  because  the  means  for  his  sup- 
port were  wholly  wanting.  In  the  spring  of 
1892  a  beloved  colleague  with  whom  I  had  been 
associated  in  close  and  precious  intimacy  for  a 


INTRODUCTORY.  xiii 

quarter  of  a  century,  gave  up  his  position  here 
and  accepted  a  position  equally  honorable  in  his 
native  land,  but  only  to  become  a  victim  of  fatal 
disease,  and  in  a  few  months  be  brought  back 
for  burial.  In  May,  1893,  another  Professor  re- 
tired from  service,  and  in  July  the  remaining 
two  also  resigned,  leaving  me  as  the  sole  rem- 
nant of  a  Faculty  of  six  members  who  two 
years  before  had  been  laboring  together  to  build 
up  the  Seminary  and  make  it  useful  to  our 
Church,  and  to  the  world.  Had  it  been  practi- 
cable for  me  also  at  this  juncture  to  cease  from 
active  service  without  exposing  the  Seminary  to 
certain  perils  which  were  seen  to  be  consequent 
upon  an  indefinite  closure,  I  would,  (as  is  well 
known  to  some  of  your  number, )  have  welcomed 
such  release  in  the  way  and  form  suggested  by 
the  action  of  this  Board. 

But  it  seemed  to  be  my  paramount  duty, 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  Board,  to  make  one 
earnest  effort  more  to  preserve  the  Institution 
from  such  perils,  and  to  maintain  for  it,  as  far  as 
I  might  be  able,  a  continuous  life.  Upon  that 
effort  God  has  been  pleased  to  grant  His  bene- 
diction, as  the  history  of  the  past  two  years 
plainly  testifies.  The  number  of  students  for 
these  years  has  been  quite  equal  to  the  aggre- 
gate of  the  two  years  preceding,  and  the  aggre- 
gate of  expense  for  the  institution  has  been  re- 
duced just  one-half,  from  $26,000  to  $13,000. 
Such  results  would  have  been  impossible,  how- 
ever, without  the  assistance  generously  rendered 
by  a  large  number  of  non-resident  instructors, 
men  of  exceptionally  high  standing  in  the 
Church,  who  consented,  in  some  instances  at 
considerable  sacrifice,  to  help  the  Seminary  in 
this  way  through  its  painful   emergency.      That 


xiv  INTRODUCTORY. 


the  instruction  thus  imparted  has  been  worth  far 
more  than  it  has  cost,  and  that  the  training  and 
advancement  of  the  students  by  this  method, 
superadded  to  the  regular  instruction,  have 
been  in  a  high  degree  satisfactory,  will  be  ob- 
vious to  the  Board,  on  careful  examination  of 
the  Faculty  report.  It  is  pleasant  to  add  that 
the  fidelity  and  the  loyality  of  the  students,  and 
their  religious  temper  and  purposes,  have  shown 
them  to  be  worthy  of  the  efforts  made  for  their 
benefit.  The  hand  of  a  gracious  God  has  mean- 
while protected  the  Seminary  from  external 
harm,  and  has  been  maintaining  for  it  more  and 
more  manifestly  its  just  place  in  the  confidence 
and  regard  of  the  Church.  I  see  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  the  near  future  will  bring  with  it 
further  signs  of  the  divine  blessing,  and  am  as- 
sured in  my  own  mind  that,  these  shadows  of 
trial  passing  off  as  they  will,  a  long  day  of 
brightness  will  soon  dawn  upon  an  institution 
whose  entire  history  has  been  a  signal  illustra- 
tion of  the  preserving,  magnifying,  enriching 
grace  of  God. 

But  the  time  has  now  come  when,  having 
served  the  Seminary  in  all  fidelity  through 
these  eight  and  twenty  years,  I  find  myself  led 
by  a  variety  of  considerations  to  the  conclusion 
that  I  may  properly  at  this  juncture  ask  to  be 
retired  from  the  active  and  responsible  services 
in  which  I  have  been  engaged  for  almost  a  gen- 
eration. To  some  of  these  considerations  per- 
mit me  briefly  to  refer  : 

One  strong  reason  for  such  withdrawal  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  Seminary  has  now  reached 
a  point  in  its  history  where  an  enlargement  of 
resources,  an  increase  in  the  teaching  force, 
and  a  general  advance  in    all   its   appointments, 


INTRODUCTORY.  XV 

are  becoming  necessaiy  to  its  progress  towards 
the  larger  prosperity  and  influence  which  we 
all  agree  in  desiring.  To  such  progress  it  is 
not  likely  that  at  this  stage  of  my  life  I  could 
make  any  special  contribution.  I  am  rather  im- 
pressed with  the  hope  that  my  retirement  at 
this  juncture  may  enable  this  Board  with 
greater  freedom  to  undertake  the  complex  and 
difficult  process  of  reconstruction — the  way 
being  thus  opened  more  widely  for  whatsoever 
steps  or  projects  may  seem  to  the  Board  desir- 
able. And  I  may  add  that  it  will  be  a  joy  to 
me  if  I  can  thus  contribute,  at  whatever  imme- 
diate cost  to  myself,  to  a  result  in  which  I  would 
rejoice  not  only  in  this  life,  but  even  in  the  life 
to  come. 

But  another  cogent  reason  for  my  retire- 
ment at  an  early  date  lies  in  the  fact  that,  hav- 
ing now  reached  the  seventieth  year  of  life,  and 
being  apprehensive  that  I  might  break  down 
entirely,  and  perhaps  at  some  very  inopportune 
moment,  if  I  should  attempt  to  carry  much  fur- 
ther the  same  amount  of  care  and  strain  which 
has  been  upon  me  for  the  past  two  or  three 
years,  I  feel  it  my  duty  as  well  as  my  privilege 
to  pause  at  this  point,  and  to  seek  by  such  re- 
tirement the  relief  and  rest  which  a  tired  body 
and  a  still  more  tired  mind  and  soul  are  crav- 
ing. I  am  sure  that  I  have  carried  this  sacred 
weight  about  as  long  and  as  far  as  I  can  carry 
it  with  safety  to  myself  and  to  the  Seminary, 
and  therefore,  not  without  pain  and  with  a  sad 
sense  of  failure  at  many  points,  I  ask  you  at  the 
earliest  practicable  date  to  remove  this  weight, 
and  to  lay  it  as  God  may  guide  you  on  younger 
and  stronger  shoulders.  I  am  not  concerned 
about  specific  questions  of  time  or  circumstance 


XVI  INTRODUCTORY. 

or  condition,  confiding  entirely  in  your  judg- 
ment on  such  matters  of  detail — being  anxious 
most  of  all  that  no  detriment  should  come  to  the 
Seminary  through  my  withdrawal  from  its  ser- 
vice. And  in  thus  resigning  my  place,  it  is 
right  for  me  to  say  that  I  take  this  step  in  no 
mood  of  disaffection,  with  no  disposition  to  har- 
bor hostility  towards  any,  but  in  peace  and  good 
will  toward  all  men,  and  especially  with  a  deep 
sense  of  gratitude  to  this  Board  for  all  the  kind- 
ness and  confidence  manifested  toward  me  in 
the  passing  years.  And  my  daily  prayer  while 
life  lasts  shall  be  that  Lane  Seminary  under 
your  wise  guidance  shall  continue  to  stand  in 
its  past  and  present  position  as  representative  of 
a  free  and  liberal  orthodoxy  and  of  a  true,  de- 
vout evangelism,  and  under  that  banner  shall 
grow  generation  after  generation  in  resources 
and  numbers,  and  in  power  to  instruct  and  bless 
the  world. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

EDWARD  D.  MORRIS. 

Lane  Seminary,  May  1,  1895. 


Action  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.      s 


*  *  *  In  accepting  the  resignation  by  Rev. 
Edward  D.  Morris,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  of  his  office  of 
Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in  this  insti- 
tution, the  board  of  trustees  desires  to  put  on  re- 
cord, for  a  perpetual  memorial,  its  expression  of 
high  and  sincere  regard  for  him.  For  thirty- 
two  years  he  has  sustained  relations  of  trust 
and  responsibility  in  the  Seminary.  In  I8G0 
he  was  elected  a  trustee  and  served  until 
his  election  to  the  chair  of  Church  History  in 
1867.  In  1870  he  was  again  elected  a  trustee  in 
order  to  act  in  an  emergency  as  treasurer  and 
superintendent,  for  which  duties  his  admirable 
business  qualifications  gave  him  peculiar  fitness. 
In  1874  Dr.  Morris  was  transferred  from  the 
chair  of  Church  History  to  that  of  Systematic 
Theology.  In  all  his  various  relations  to  the 
Seminary,  he  has  always  held  the  highest  re- 
gard and  confidence  of  the  trustees  and  of  the 
community.  The  many  and  hearty  testimonials 
given  to  him  on  fitting  occasions  show  the  warm 
and  sincere  esteem  in  which  he  has  always  been 
held  by  the  alumni  of  Lane  and  by  his  fellows 
in  the  ministry  and  bv  the  church. 

His  work  for  the  church  at  large  has  been 
conspicuous.  As  a  pastor  he  learned  how  to 
train  pastors.  As  a  preacher  he  learned  how  to 
guide  preachers.    As  a  theologian  he  has  stood, 


XVlll  INTRODUCTORY. 

in  the,  culmination  of  his  strength,  among  the 
first  of  the  living  theologians  of  the  Reformed 
Chixrches  in  our  own  and  other  lands.  He  has 
bfien  honored  by  our  beloved  Church  with  the 
highest  office  in  its  gift,  and  intrusted  with  the 
duty  of  representing  it  on  many  occasions  of 
public  import.  He  was  one  of  the  Assembly's 
Committee  on  the  revision  of  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  one  of  the  most  influential  of  its  mem- 
bers. A  man  of  untiring  industry,  he  has  done 
much  to  sustain  by  his  pen  the  reputation  of 
Lane  Seminary  for  sound  scholarship  and  wide 
literary  attainment. 

This  Board  would  also  record  its  special 
obligation  to  Dr.  Morris  for  the  signal  service 
which  he  has  rendered  the  Seminary  during  the 
past  two  years,  the  most  trying  years  in  its  his- 
tory. His  heroic  and  wise  efforts  to  preserve 
the  continuous  life  of  the  imperiled  institution 
have  been,  in  important  respects,  the  most  valu- 
able in  his  long  official  service,  and  we  rejoice 
with  him,  not  only  in  the  remarkable  success  of 
these  extraordinary  efforts,  but  also  in  the  prom- 
ise, thus  assured,  of  coming  prosperity  to  the 
rescued  Seminary.  Nor  would  we  fail  to  put 
on  record  our  high  appreciation  of  that  devoted 
loyalty  to  the  Seminary,  which  at  all  times  has 
caused  Dr.  Morris  to  make  every  danger  that 
has  seemed  to  menace  its  usefulness  and  repu- 
tation a  matter  of  personal  concern,  and  our 
hearty  commendation  of  that  strong  sense  ©f 
duty  which  has  impelled  him  to  defend  its  pol- 
icy and  administration  against  all  influences 
which  have  seemed  hostile  to  its  best  interests. 
It  is  our  belief  that  the  Church,  which  he  has 
so  faithfully  served  in  all  these  years,  will  not 
fail  to  give  him  due  honor  for  his  masterly  ad- 


INTRODUCTORY,  XIX 

vocacy  of  the  interest  of  the  Seminary  in  what 
seemed  to  him  and  this  Board  occasions  of  spec- 
ial peril.  There  are  times  in  the  history  of 
institutions  when  proposed  changes  in  their  pol- 
icy have  to  be  met  not  only  by  a  searching  in- 
quiry as  to  the  grounds  of  such  action,  but,  if 
need  be,  by  a  firm  resistance  to  every  threatened 
invasion  of  compact  and  charter  rights,  and 
whatever  of  infelicity  may  attend  such  defenses 
of  imperiled  interests  will  surely  be  overlooked 
when  the  conscientious  and  noble  purpose  that 
inspired  them  stands  out  in  the  clear  light  of 
history. 

In  accepting  with  deep  regret  his  resigna- 
tion, tendered  by  reason  of  advancing  years, 
and  the  monition  of  Providence,  we  wish  to  put 
on  our  permanent  records  this  expression  of  our 
appreciation  of  Professor  Morris  as  a  Christian 
man,  a  scholar,  a  teacher,  and  a  most  faithful 
colleao-ue. 


Thirty  Years  in  Lane, 


PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  LANE  CLUB. 


DECEMBER  8,  1896. 


Brethren  of  the  Lane  Club  : 

When  the  centennial  celebration  of  Lane 
Seminary  shall  occur  in  1932,  it  will  appear 
that  the  history  of  the  century  has  divided  itself 
into  three  nearly  equal  periods.  The  first  of 
these  periods  extended  from  the  organization  of 
the  hrst  theological  faculty  in  December,  1832, 
to  the  reorganization  of  the  faculty,  after  several 
serious  changes,  in  the  autumn  of  1867.  The 
second  period  reaches  from  that  date  to  the 
equally  important  reorganization  just  now  in 
progress  ;  and  the  third  v^ill  extend  from  1897 
to  the  centennial  year.  God  grant  that  this 
coming  period  may  be  brightest  and  best  as  well 
as  last  in  this  initial  century  in  the  history  of 
this  beloved  Institution. 

It  is  not  needful  to  revert  on  this  occasion 
to  the  first  of  these  three  periods,  or  to  the  events 
which  led  on  from  the  first  charter  as  early  as 
1829,  and  the  organizing  of  a  preparatory  insti- 
tution in  the  autumn  of  that  year  to  the  election 
of  Lyman  Beecher  and  his  associates,  and  the 
opening  of  the  Seminary  for  the  reception  of 
theological  students.  Nor  is  it  desirable  now  to 
speak  at  any  length  of  that  group  of    illustrious 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  3 

men,  Beecher,*  and  Biggs, f  and  Stowe,J:  and 
Dickinson,  §  and  Condit,  ||  and  Allen,  and  Day, 
the  last  still  among  the  living,  who  carried  the 
Institution  on  so  courageously  and  successfully, 
down  to  the  time  when  the  last  of  them  retired 
from  the  service.  I  shall  have  opportunity  in 
another  way  to  express  my  veneration  for  their 
characters,  and  my  profound  and  increasing  ad- 
miration for  the  work  which,  often  amid  great 
trials,  they  accomplished  here  for  Christ  and  his 
Church.  Nor  will  it  be  practicable  for  me  to 
become  either  prophet  or  counsellor  with  respect 
to  the  new  period  just  dawning,  beyond  the  ut- 
terance of  a  few  suggestions  that  may  be  helpful, 
and  the  expression  of  a  strong  hope  that  all  our 
warmest  and  largest  desires  for  Lane  may  be 
realized  in  the  generation  to  follow.  My  pres- 
ent task  relates  only  to  the  middle  period  in  the 


*REV.  LYMAN  BEECH KR,  D.  D.  1832-1850.  Born  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  Oct.  12,  1775;  Yale  Collejje,  1797;  Ord  Sept.  5, 
1799  (Pre-b.);  Easthampton,  L.  I.,  1799-1810  ;  Litchfield,  Conn., 
1810-1826;  Boston,  Mass.,  1826-1832;  Pres.  and  Prof,  of  Syst. 
TheoL,  LA\E,  1832-1850;  Emeritus  Prof,  till  his  death  in  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y.,  Jan.  12,  1863;    D.  D.  Mid -It^b.  College,  1818. 

fREV.  THOMAS  JACOB  BIGGS,  D.  D.  1831-1838.  Born 
Philadelphia,  Pa  ,  Nov.  29,  1787;  College  of  N.  J.,  181=;;  Prince- 
ton  Seminiry.  1815-1817;  Ord.  1818  (Presb.  of  Phila.);  Frankford, 
Pa.,  1818-1832;  Prof.  (  hurch  Hist..  LANE,  1832-1839;  Pres.  Cin- 
cinnati College,  1839-1845;  Pres.  Woodward  College,  1845-1851  ; 
Pastor,  Cincinnati,  1852-1856  ;  resided  in  Cincinnati  till  his  death, 
1863. 

JREV.  CALVIN  ELLIS  STOWE,  U.  D.  1833-1S50.  Born 
at  Natick,  Mass.,  April  6,  1802;  Bowd.  College,  1824;  Andover 
Seminary,  1825-1828;  Instructor  do.,  1828-1830;  Prof.  Dart.  Col- 
lege, 1830-1833;  Prof.  Biblical  Literature,  LANE,  1833-1850;  Prof. 
Bowd.  College,  1850-1852  ;  Prof.  Sacred  Literature,  Andover, 
1852-1872;    die  I  Aug.  22,  1886,  in  Hartford,  Conn. 


4  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    I.ANE. 

century,  from  1867  to  1897 — a  period  whose 
history  I  have  known  as  no  one  else  now  living 
knows  it,  and  in  whose  experiences,  joyful  and 
sorrowful,  I  have  largely  shared. 

I  trust  that  no  one  will  fancy  me  vain 
enough  to  suppose  that  either  my  coming  or  my 
going  is  of  sufficient  moment  to  constitute  an 
epoch  in  the  history  of  this  beloved  Institution, 
or  will  fear  lest  I  may  presume  to  occupy  this 
significant  hour  with  personal  biography  merely. 
It  so  chances  that  both  my  coming  and  my  go- 
ing do  so  far  synchronize  with  the  marked  transi- 
tions in  that  history  to  which  I  have  just  re- 
ferred, that  I  may  properly  claim  to  represent 
this  middle  period  as  no  other  can,  and  to  speak 
concerning  it  as  no  other  can  speak.  And  if 
what  is  personal  seems  to  any  to  blend  too 
largely  at  any  point  with  the  main  elements  in 
my  narration  of  these  Thirty  Years  in  Lane,  I 


^^REV.  BAXTER  DICKINSON,  D.  D.  1835-1839.  Born 
Amherst,  Mass.,  April  14  1795;  ^'^^^^  College,  1817;  Andover 
Seminary,  1818-1821  ;  Ord.  Longmeadow,  Mass.,  1823  (Cong.); 
Longmeaifuv,  1823-1829  ;  Newark,  N.  J.,  1829-1835  ;  Prof.  Sacred 
Rhetoric,  LANE,  1835-1839;  Prof.  Sacred  Rhetoric,  Auburn  Sem- 
inary, 1839-1847;  Acting  Prof.,  Andover,  1848;  Sec'y  Am.  and 
For.  Christian  Union,  1850-1859;  resided  at  Lake  Forest,  111., 
1859-1868;  at  Brooklyn,  N,  Y.,  1868,  till  his  death,  Dec.  7,  1875; 
D.  D.  Amherst  College,  1838. 

II  REV.  JONATHAN  BAILEY  CONDIT,  D.  D.  1851-1854. 
Born  Hanover,  N,  J.,  f^ec.  16,  1808;  College  of  N.  J.,  1827; 
Princeton  Seminary,  1827-30;  Ord.  Longmeadow,  Mass.,  July  14, 
1831  ;  Longmeadow,  1831-1835  ;  Prof.^Amherst  College,  1835- 
1838;  Portland,  Me.,  1838-1845  ;  Newark,  N.  J.,  1845-1850; 
Prof.  Sacred  Rhetoric.  LANE,  1851-1855;  Prof.  Sacred  Rhetoric, 
Auburn  Seminary,  1855-1873;  died  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  Jan,  I, 
1876;    D.  D.  College  of  N.  J.,  1847. 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN   LANE.  5 

can  only  trust  that  this  almost  unavoidable  in- 
trusion of  the  personal  factor  will  be  cordially 
forgiven. 

My  first  visit  to  Lane  Seminary  occurred  in 
May,  1863,  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  which 
an  election  in  the  preceding  year  as  trustee  had 
laid  upon  me.  I  remember  that  I  was  then  the 
guest  of  Prof.  Day  in  the  house  which  he  had 
recently  built,  and  which  afterwards  became, 
and  has  so  long  been,  my  own  home.  From 
that  date,  now  a  third  of  a  century  distant,  my 
active  connection  with  the  Institution  began. 
The  Faculty  then  consisted  of  Prof.  D.  Howe 
Allen,  in  the  chair  of  Theology  ;  Prof.  George  E. 
Day,  in  the  chair  of  Hebrew  and  Greek  ;  and 
Prof.  Evans,  a  graduate  of  1860,  who,  after  two 
years  or  more  as  pastor  of  the  Lane  Seminary 
Church,  was  just  now  entering  upon  duty  in  the 
chair  of  Church  History.  On  account  of  the  fi- 
nancial stringency  occasioned  by  the  civil  war 
and  other  causes.  Dr.  Henry  Smith,  who  had 
served  the  Seminary  with  very  marked  success 
from  1853  to  1861,  in  the  chair  of  Sacred  Rhet- 
oric, had  resigned  his  place  in  the  latter  year  to 
accept  a  pastorate  in  Buffalo.  His  withdrawal 
left  the  Institution  without  needful  training  in 
that  department,  and  several  adjacent  pastors 
were  called  in  from  time  to  time  to  assist  in  such 
training.  It  was  in  this  way  that  I  was  asked  by 
the  Faculty  and  Executive  Committee  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1864  to  lecture  and  give  practical  instruc- 


6  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

tion  here  in  the  line  of  Homiletics  —  a  service 
which,  in  the  midst  of  much  pastoral  care  at  home, 
I  rendered  for  four  months  or  more  during  that 
winter,  visiting  the  Seminary  each  week  for  sev- 
eral days,  and  returning  in  time  to  prepare,  after 
a  fashion,  for  the  ministrations  of  each  recurring 
Sabbath.  Meanwhile  I  was  continuing  to  render 
what  service  I  could  as  trustee,  in  the  serious 
emergency,  financial  and  otherwise,  which  had 
come  like  a  dark  shadow  upon  the  Institution. 

Darker  shadows  were  soon  to  follow.  Dr. 
Smith  had  returned  in  1865,  and  taken  up  again 
with  his  accustomed  vigor  the  work  of  his  own 
department.  But  the  health  of  Dr.  Allen  began 
to  fail  seriously  under  the  pressure  of  the  many 
cares  which  fell  upon  him,  not  only  as  the  lead- 
ing Professor,  but  also  as  both  treasurer  and 
superintendent  ;  and  during  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing it  became  more  and  more  evident  that  his 
work  for  Lane  and  for  Christ  was  ending.*  In 
May,  1866,  Prof.  Day,t  after  rendering  valuable 


•«REV.  DIARCA  HOWE  ALLEN,  D  D.  1840-1S67.  Born 
Lebanon,  N.  H.,  July  8  1808;  Dart.  College.  1829;  Anrlover 
Seminary.  1829-1830  and  1832-1S33  ;  (Teacher,  Charleston,  S.  C. 
1830-1832);  Prof.  Marietta  f'oliege,  1 933- 1 840  ;  Prof,  of  Sacred 
Khetoric,  LANE,  1840-51  ;  Prof,  of  Svst,  Theol  ,  1851-1867,  and 
Emeritus  Prof,  till  his  death  at  Granville,  O.,  Nov.  9,  1870; 
D.  D.  Mar.  College,  1848. 

fREV.  GEORGE  EDWARD  DAY,  D.  D.  1851-1866.  Born 
PittsfieM,  Mass.,  March  19,  1815;  Yale  College,  1833;  Yale  Sem- 
inary, 1835-1838;  A.<;sistant  Instructor,  Yale  ^eminaiy,  18^8-1840; 
Ord.  Marlborough,  Mass.  (C^mg.),  Dec,  2,  1S40;  Marlborough, 
1840-1847;  Northampton,  1848-185 1  ;  Prof.  Biblical  Literature, 
LANE,  1851-1866  ;  Prof.  Hebrew  Language  and  Literature  and 
Biblical  Theol,  Yale  Seminary,  1866- 1896. 


THIRTY    YEARS     IN    LANE.  7 

services  for  fifteen  years,  resigned  his  chair  for  a 
similar  position  in  the  Divinity  School  at  Yale, 
and  Rev.  Elisha  BallantineJ:  was  elected  to  fill  the 
place.  But  during  the  earlier  months  of  1867  it 
became  evident  to  all  that  the  beloved  Allen  could 
no  longer  remain  in  the  position  which  he  had 
occupied  so  long  and  so  well  ;  and  just  after  the 
term  had  opened  in  the  fall,  Dr.  Ballantine  also 
resigned.  And  when  the  trustees  were  called  to- 
gether, early  in  October,  to  consider  the  critical 
situation,  there  were  but  two  Professors  remain- 
ing— Smith  and  Evans,  and  a  small  group  of  stu- 
dents, numbering,  perhaps,  sixteen. 

In  such  an  exigency  occurred  that  reorgan- 
ization of  the  Faculty  to  which  I  have  referred 
as  introducing  the  second  era  in  the  life  of  the 
Serhinary.  At  that  meeting  of  the  Board,  the 
Rev.  Henry  A.  Nelson,  D.  D.,  then  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  in  St.  Louis,  was 
elected  to  fill  the  place  of  Dr.  Allen,  and  I, 
greatly  to  my  surprise  (  for  I  had  earnestly  urged 
the  election  of  another ),  was  chosen  to  succeed 
Prof.  Ballantine.     On  the  following  morning,  be- 


JREV.  ELISHA  BALLANTINE,  LL.  D.  1866-1867.  Born 
Schodack,  N,  Y.,  Oct.  11,  1809;  Ohio  University,  1828;  Union 
Seminary,  Va  ;  Ord.  April,  1834  (West  Hanover  Presb.);  studied 
in  Germany,  1834-1835  ;  Teacher  in  Union  Seminary,  Va.,  1836- 
1838;  Briery  Church,  1S38-1839  ;  Prof.  Ohio  Utdversity,  1839- 
1840;  Douglas  Church,  Va.,  1840-1847  ;  Washington,  D.  C.  (First 
Church),  1847-1851;  Teacher,  1851-1854;  Prof.  Indiana  Univer- 
sity, 1854-1863;  Dist.  Sec'y  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  (at  Cincinnati),  1863- 
1866;  Prof.  Biblical  Literature,  LANE,  1866-1867  ;  Prof.  Indiana 
University,  1867-1878  ;  died  in  Bloomington,  Ind.,  April  20,  1886; 
LL.  D.  Indiana  University,  1878. 


8  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    I.ANE. 

fore  the  Board  had  adjourned,  an  exchange  of 
chairs  was  effected,  and  Dr.  Evans  became  the 
Professor  of  Hebrew  and  Greek  Exegesis,  as  the 
title  then  ran,  while  I,  much  to  my  relief,  was 
placed  in  the  chair  of  Church  History.  In  No- 
vember both  appointments  were  accepted  to- 
gether. At  the  close  of  the  year  I  entered  upon 
my  work,  and  in  the  following  April  Dr.  Nelson 
also  undertook  his  duties  in  the  department  of 
Systematic  Theology.  In  May,  following,  the 
Board  of  Trustees  devised  some  new  plans  for 
the  enlargement  of  the  Seminary  ;  certain  lands 
were  advantageously  leased  ;  J|;40,000  were  raised 
for  the  Endowment  Fund,  chiefly  among  the  trus- 
tees ;  cheering  indications  of  increased  sympa- 
thy and  confidence  seemed  to  be  manifest  ;  the 
prospect  for  students  brightened  ;  the  instructors, 
old  and  new,  began  to  work  together  in  utmost 
harmony  ;  and,  to  human  view,  it  appeared  that 
a  new  era  of  prosperity  and  growth  was  about  to 
dawn. 

I  wish  that  we  had  a  series  of  daguerre- 
otype views  of  the  Seminary  and  its  sur- 
roundings, as  they  appeared  at  that  time.  An 
undulating  country  road  ran  in  front  where  now 
we  have  the  graded  city  street,  and  along  that 
side  a  tight  board  fence  of  the  picketed  sort 
extended,  sometime  or  other  whitewashed  to 
impart  a  certain  air  of  respectability,  yet  now 
giving  way  at  various  points  to  the  pressure  of 
years  and  western  winds.      There  were  two  tan- 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  9 

bark  walks,  and  a  truly  rural  rather  than  civic 
driveway  leading  straight  from  the  outside 
world  to  the  old  dormitory,  now  the  boarding 
hall,  and  to  the  chapel  respectively.  Six  long 
rows  of  locust  trees  planted  at  some  early  day, 
tall  and  stout,  but  racked  and  fractured  with 
the  storms  that  had  beaten  upon  them  for  a 
generation,  filled  the  main  space  in  the  south- 
ern half  of  the  campus  ;  and  six  more  rows  of 
catalpas,  planted  later — beautiful  during  their 
brief  day  of  blossoming,  but  scraggy  and  ugly 
enough  for  the  remainder  of  the  year — filled 
most  of  the  northern  half.  The  campus  itself 
stretched  away  eastward  as  far  as  Park  avenue, 
and  ampng  its  numerous  trees  and  bushes  a 
thousand  birds  made  their  happy  nests.  On  its 
southern  side  two  dwellings  for  professors  and 
a  small  office  once  occupied  by  Dr.  Allen,  were 
carefully  fenced  off  from  the  main  space  and 
hidden  away  amid  the  abounding  shrubbery. 
A  cow,  a  horse,  quietly  browsed  in  a  narrow 
strip  of  land  on  the  southwest  corner  provided 
for  that  purpose,  and  two  unsightly  but  quite 
essential  barns  displayed  themselves  in  the  rear 
©f  the  two  dwellings.  Robins  and  orioles  and 
bluebirds,  sometimes  a  wanderino-  flock  of 
quails,  an  occasional  squirrel,  wild  rabbits  in 
abundance,  and  once  a  family  of  opossums, 
made  their  homes  with  us.  Nor  were  there 
wanting  other  features  of  rustic,  even  primeval 
beauty,  such  as  that  old  walnut  tree,   as  dear  as 


lO  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

it  was  gnarled,  which  stood  on  the  corner  tow- 
ard the  distant  city — all  parts  and  features  ©f  a 
scene  which,  like  the  day  that  is  dead,  so  ten- 
derly sung  by  Tennyson,  will  never  come  back 
to  Lane. 

The  buildings  were  quite  in  harmony  with 
these  primitive  surroundings.  The  dormitory, 
erected  in  1834,  was  at  this  time  altogether 
innocent  of  porches  or  mansard  roofing,  or  any 
such  adornment,  and  standing  by  itself  among 
the  tall  and  scraggy  locust  trees  that  sur- 
rounded it,  looked  like  nothing  on  earth  but  a 
New  England  cotton  factory  of  the  most  antique 
type,  or  old  South  Middle  at  Yale,  built  some- 
where in  the  last  century.  Near  it,  to  the 
north,  stood  the  first  buildinof  erected  on  the 
ground  and  occupied  generally  as  the  boarding 
hall,  partly  destroyed  three  months  later  by 
fire,  but  rebuilt  shortly  afterwards  and  in  larger 
dimensions  on  the  old  site  where  it  still  stands. 
North  of  this,  where  now  there  is  a  vacant 
space,  stood  the  dear  old  chapel,  dedicated  in 
1836,  with  its  spacious  steps  and  fluted  columns 
in  front,  built  on  the  model  of  the  Parthenon, 
but  like  the  Parthenon  unstable  and  subject  to 
decay — torn  down  some  fifteen  years  ago,  much 
to  my  sorrow,  for  I  would  rather  have  covered 
it  with  ivies  and  let  it  stand  through  the  gen- 
erations as  a  silent  witness  to  that  primal  age 
when  Lyman  Beecher  and  Baxter  Dickinson 
and    Calvin  Stowe  flashed  and   argued  and  won 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  11 

men  to  Christ  within  its  sacred  walls.  The 
present  library  building  had  just  been  finished 
and  filled  with  such  books  as  were  then  pos- 
sessed, and  stood  by  itself  among  the  catalpas 
to  the  northwest  of  what  was  then  the  main 
front  of  the  Seminary — a  noble  monument  of 
the  Christian  liberality  of  him  who  provided  it, 
and  as  it  stands,  a  prophecy — let  us  hope — of  a 
larger  and  completer  building  yet  to  be  reared 
as  one  element  in  the  developing  future  of 
Lane.  Such  were  at  that  time  the  material 
structures  of  the  Institution,  and  at  that  date 
no  one  dreamed  of  the  three  dwellings  for  pro- 
fessors afterwards  erected,  or  of  this  central 
structure  which  for  the  past  sixteen  years  has 
been  so  attractive  and  so  valuable  a  feature  in 
our  institutional  life.  I  trust  that  before  many 
years  this  building,  at  once  a  home  and  a 
church  as  well  as  a  school,  may  be  completed 
by  the  erection  of  the  southern  wing  according 
to  the  original  plan,  and  so  made  ready  to 
accommodate  another  score  or  two  of  happy 
students. 

The  outlook  in  several  other  aspects  was 
not  encouraging.  The  number  in  attendance 
during  that  year  of  changes  was  said  by  a 
witty  friend  to  be  somewhere  between  sixteen 
and  seventeen — the  uncountable  member  being 
a  sort  of  half  student  and  half  preacher,  and 
not  much  of  either,  who  for  a  while  fastened 
himself    on    the    Seminary,    but    came    to    grief 


12  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LAN]^. 

and  nothingness  before  the  close  of  the  year. 
The  course  of  study  was  less  extensive  than  it 
became  in  subsequent  years,  though  no  better 
men  could  have  been  found  in  any  school  of  the 
prophets  than  those  who,  amid  many  disabili- 
ties, were  accomplishing  year  by  year  so  much 
in  the  effective  training  of  scores  of  young 
preachers  for  useful  and  honorable  work  in  the 
church. 

The  financial  resources  of  the  Institution  in 
1867  were  less  than  half  what  they  now  are  ; 
the  scholarship  fund  was  wholly  inadequate, 
and  the  library  fund  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
had  existence.  The  buildings  also,  the  library 
excepted,  were  thirty  years  old  and  more,  and 
apparently  beyond  profitable  repair.  The 
chapel  furnished  in  its  damp  basement  the  only 
recitation  rooms  ;  no  modern  convenience,  no 
great  amount  of  comfort  in  surroundings,  was 
apparent  anvvvhere.  It  must  also  be  confessed 
that  at  that  juncture,  though  the  trustees  were 
hopeful,  some  old  friends  of  the  Institution  out- 
side of  the  Board  were  considerably  discour- 
aged as  to  the  future,  and  disinclined  to  render 
further  aid.  And  perhaps  it  may  be  added  here 
that  the  growing  prospect  of  that  union  between 
the  two  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
which  occurred  two  years  later,  involving  as  it 
inevitably  would  some  loss  of  constituency, 
some  shiftinor  of  interest  here  and  there,  the 
closing  of  some  sources  of  supply,  the  develop- 


Thirty  years  in  lane.  13 

ment  also  of  some  fresh  forms  of   jealousy  and 
even  of    enmity,    contributed    not  a  little  to  the 
occasions  for   solicitude  in   the  breasts  of  those 
to  whom  the   welfare  of  the  Seminary,  whether 
for  weal  or  for  woe,  had   been   entrusted.     Cer- 
tainly it  was  no  light  or  easy  task  in  which  the 
Faculty  and  the  Board  were  now  to  be  engaged. 
But    by    degrees,    as    I    have    already  inti- 
mated,  the    light   broke  in— the  light  of    provi- 
dence and  of  grace.     The  burned  boarding  hall 
was    restored    during   the  next  summer,   a*^d  in 
1868  the   dormitory  was   entirely  renewed,  with 
considerable    additions    to  its  beauty   and    com- 
fort, at  a  cost  of  $7,000.      Provision    was   made 
soon    after  for    the    heating  and  lighting  of   the 
library    building,     and     better    accommodations 
were  secured,  chiefly  in  the  dormitory,  for  class 
instruction.      During    the    next    two    years    the 
number  of  students  more   than  doubled,  and  the 
general  situation   and  prospect  continued  to  im- 
prove  steadily.      The  union  of  the  two  Presby- 
terian   households    which    was    celebrated    here 
by  special  services   in   November,   1869,  in  con- 
junction   with    the    fortieth    anniversary    of    the 
existence    of    Lane    as    a   chartered    institution, 
and    concerning    whose    effect    grave   apprehen- 
sion had  been  felt  by  some,  proved  after  a  little 
to  be  more  a  blessing  than  a  damage.     Students 
came    in    consequence    from    new    quarters,  and 
new  friends   by  degrees  made  themselves  appa- 
rent.     As    the    Seminary  had    existed  with  de- 


14  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

nominational  approval  before  the  unhappy 
rupture  of  1837,  and  had  maintained  its  position 
without  change  during  the  division,  it  now  sim- 
ply renewed  its  allegiance  and  stood  just  where 
it  had  always  stood,  in  full  loyalty  to  the  united 
church,  but  retaining  the  useful  and  happy 
autonomy  which  its  official  board  had  exercised 
from  the  beginning.  It  may  in  justice  be  said 
here  that  no  theological  institution  on  either 
side  of  the  line  was  so  prompt  and  generous  in 
adopting  practical  measures  in  the  interest  of  a 
comprehensive  and  irenic  denominational  unity. 
One  illustration  of  this  appears  in  the  fact  that,  as 
fast  as  vacancies  in  the  Board  of  Trust  occurred, 
they  were  filled  by  successive  elections  of  trus- 
tees from  the  other  branch,  until  within  five 
years  such  representative  men  constituted 
more  than  one-third  of  the  organization.  And 
in  less  than  two  years  after  the  union,  when  no 
similar  step  had  been  taken  elsewhere,  that 
branch  was  also  represented  in  the  Faculty  by 
the  election  of  one  of  its  ablest  scholars  and 
preachers,  the  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Thomas,  D.  D., 
to  the  chair  of  New  Testament  Exegesis,  Prof. 
Evans  accepting  as  his  special  field  the  corre- 
sponding chair  of  Old  Testament  Language  and 
Literature.  This  increase  in  the  working  force 
was  regarded  as  a  very  important  movement  in 
that  development  in  the  scope  and  thoroughness 
of  instruction  respecting  which  all  were  alike 
earnestly  agreed. 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  ig 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  during  the  first 
five  and  forty  years   in  the  history  of   Lane  no 
professor    had    been     removed    from    ofiice    by 
death.      Prof.  Biggs  and    Dr.  Beecher  had  died 
in  1863,   years   after   their    retirement  from   ser- 
vice ;  but    Dr.  Allen    v^as    the  first,   after   more 
than  three    years  of  bodily  and   mental  disabil- 
ity, to  pass  from  life,  November  9,  1870,  while 
retaining  an  honorable  though  emeritus  relation 
granted  together  with    an    annuity  by  the  trus- 
tees at  his  retirement  in  1867.     I  shall  have  the 
privilege    of    expressing    in    another    way     my 
appreciation   of    one   whose   twenty-seven  years 
of   continuous    service   here   were  of   such  ines- 
timable   value     to     the    Seminary     and    to     the 
Church,   and   on    whose   sturdy,   balanced,   thor- 
oughly christianized  personality  the   Institution 
stood  during  one  of    the    darkest  periods  in  its 
history  as  on  a  rock.      He    was    no    perfunctory 
teacher,    content    with    filling    out    an    assigned 
program  of   professional    duty.      In  his  position 
here  he  showed  himself  incapable  of  selfishness, 
cheerful  always  amid  difficulties,  and  cordial  in 
all  sacrifices— ready   by   both  principle    and  in- 
stinct to  take  up  any  burden,   whether  imposed 
by  Providence  or  by  human  choice,  and  prompt 
and  faithful  in   the  discharge  of  any  duty  how- 
ever   unwelcome.      For    seventeen    years    after 
the    retirement    of    Dr.     Beecher,    he    took    the 
Seminary  on  his  heart,  and  held  it  in  his  arms 
as  if    it    were    his    child.      Professor,    treasurer, 


16  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE!. 

superintendent,  agent  and  general  representa- 
tive, the  willing  and  capable  servant  of  the 
Institution  at  every  point  ;  ever  seeking  money, 
and  seeking  students,  and  seeking  friends  and 
advantages  for  it  wherever  he  could  find  them  ; 
doing  this  often  in  the  midst  of  painful  crit- 
icism and  oppositions,  and  spending  himself  in 
this  loved  interest  as  lavishly  as  if  it  were  to 
him  the  whole  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  He 
wore  himself  out  all  too  early,  and  died  at 
sixty-two  from  exhaustion  of  physical  and  men- 
tal power  at  a  period  when,  to  human  view,  he 
might  have  lived  through  at  least  another  dec- 
ade of  eminent  service,  and  when  his  retire- 
ment and  death  seemed  a  calamity  dark  and 
irreparable.  May  his  name  be  perpetuated  and 
venerated  here  while  Lane  Seminary  stands  ! 

The  records  of  the  four  or  five  years  suc- 
ceeding this  bereavement  show  decided  ad- 
vance, but  an  advance  mingled  with  much  of 
trial  and  change.  The  attendance  of  students 
continued  to  increase  year  by  year,  until  in 
1873-4,  it  attained  (for  that  year  only)  the 
unprecedented  aggregate  of  fifty-seven.  The 
quality  of  the  students,  also,  their  better 
preparation  for  the  assigned  studies,  and  their 
measure  of  diligence  and  success  in  the  work, 
were  such  as  to  inspire  each  teacher  to  the 
highest  possible  degree  of  devotion  and  effi- 
ciency. Advances  were  made  also  in  the  en- 
largement of  funds  and  the  financial  administra- 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  17 

tion,  and  a  steadily  widening  sympathy  with  the 
Institution  and  its  work  became  apparent  among 
many  ministers  and  churches  of  the  region.  It 
seemed  as  if  a  decade  or  two  of  like  develop- 
ment along  such  lines  would  place  the  Semi- 
nary on  high  vantage  ground,  with  adequate  en- 
dowment and  an  increasing  reputation  such  as 
would  insure  for  it  an  expanding  and  most  fruit- 
ful future. 

But  change  and  trial  were  near  at  hand. 
In  1871  Dr.  Smith,  carrying  out  a  long  cher- 
ished purpose  of  retirement  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
five,  tendered  his  resignation.  The  resignation 
was  not  accepted  in  form,  but  an  arrangement 
was  efft^cted  by  which  he  was  obligated  to  con- 
tinue in  actual  service  only  some  portion  of 
each  year — an  arrangement  which  with  some 
variety  in  time  and  in  work  was  maintained  un- 
til his  decease,  Jan.  14,  1879.* 

Dr.  Thomas  entered  on  his  duties  in  the 
autumn  of  1871,  commanding  at  once  the  re- 
spect and  affection  of  the  students  and  en- 
dearing himself  more  and  more  to  his  associates 
as  well  as  to  those  under  his   instruction — prov- 


♦REV.  HENRY  SMITH,  D.  D..  LL.  D.  1855-1879.  Born 
Milton,  Vt.,  Dec.  16,  1S05;  Middlebury  College.  1827;  Tutor,  do  , 
1828-1830;  Andover  Seminary.  1830-1833;  Prof.  Marietta  College, 
1833-1846;  Pres.,  do..  1846-1855;  Prof.  Sacred  Rhetoric,  LANE, 
1855-1861;  Pastor,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1861-1865;  Prof.  Sacred  Rhe- 
toric, LAME,  1865,  till  his  death,  Jan.  14,  1879;  D.  D.  Middleb, 
College,  1847;  LL.  D.  Marietta  College,  1864, 


18  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

ing  himself  year  by  year  an  able  scholar  and  a 
skillful    exegete    and    teacher,   until    his  sudden 
death  at  the  age  of  sixty-three,   in  Feb.   1875.* 
In    all    his    relations    to    the    Seminary    he  won 
and    held    the    cordial    regard    of    trustees    and 
teachers    and    alumni,    and    had    his    life    been 
spared,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  continued  to 
increase    in    influence  and  in  usefulness.      As  a- 
preacher,     and     especially     as      an      expository 
preacher,  he    was   not    only    clear    and     sound, 
but  in  a  high  degree  eloquent,  and  in  the  coun- 
sels of  the  church  he  was  deservedly  influential. 
In    contact  with    men,   he   was   sincere,   cordial, 
winning    in    manner  as   well  as  appearance,  but 
always    courageous    in    opposing  wrong,  and  as 
faithful    to    what   he   believed  to  be  true,   what- 
ever might  oppose,  as  that  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles of  whose  career  it  was  so  much  his  delight 
to  speak.    Occupying  also  a  peculiar  position  as 
in  some  sense  a  representative  of  that  branch  of 
the  church  which  the    union    had    brought    into 
new    relations    with  the    Seminary,   his    service 
had  very  special  value,   and   his   death  was    re- 
garded by  all  as  a  serious  disaster. 


*REV.  THOMAS  EBENEZER  THOMAS,  D.  D.  1871- 
1875.  Born  in  Chelmsford,  Eng.,  Dec.  23,  1812;  Miami  University, 
1834;  Ord.  July,  1837,  Harrison,  O.;  Pastor  at  Hamilton,  1838- 
1849;  Pres.  of  Hanover  College,  1849-1854;  Prof.  Biblical  Litera- 
ture, New  Albany  Seminary,  1854-1858;  Pastor  Dayton,  O.,  1858- 
1871;  Prof.  New  Testament  Exegesis,  LANE,  1871,  till  his  death, 
Feb.  2,  1875;  D.  D.  Wab.  College,  1850. 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    I.ANE.  19 

In  1874  Professor  Nelson*  whose  six  years 
of  labor  here  had  greatly  endeared  him  to 
students  and  instructors  and  trustees,  and  indeed 
to  all  who  were  anyway  interested  in  the  Semi- 
nary, resigned  his  chair  in  order  to  enter  again 
on  that  pastoral  work  in  which  he  had  previously 
been  so  successful,  and  toward  which  his  heart 
was  strongly  drawn.  He  might  have  remained 
until  this  day,  crowned  with  increasing  success, 
and  rejoicing  more  and  more  in  his  special 
form  of  service,  and  it  might  have  been  his 
privilege  rather  than  mine  to  tell  in  your 
presence  the  story  of  these  changeful  years.  I 
have  been  permitted  in  another  connection  to 
give  my  estimate  of  the  work  he  did  here  as  a 
theological  teacher,  and  need  only  now  advert 
gratefully  in  passing  to  the  friendship  which  be- 
gan early  in  our  ministerial  lives,  has  been  con- 
tinued without  interruption  for  almost  fifty 
years,  and  is  likely  to  be  continued  until  death, 
and  long  after.  His  resignation  led  unexpect- 
edly to  my  transfer  to  the  chair  he  had  vacated, 
and  to  that  high  and  sweet  task  of  giving  in- 
struction in  theology,  to  which  the  last  three 
and  twenty  years  of  my  life  have  been  given. 
As  one  consequence  of  this  transfer.  Rev.  Henry 


-REV.  HENRY  ADDISON  NELSON,  D.  D.  1867-1874. 
Born  Amherst,  Mass.,  Oct.  31,  1820;  Hamilton  College,  1840;  Au- 
burn Seminary,  1843-1846;  Ord.  July  29,  1846  (Cayuga  Presb.); 
Auburn,  N.  ¥.,  1846-1856;  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1856-1868;  Prof.  Syst. 
Theo.,  LANE,  1868-1874;  Pastor,  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  1874-1881;  Editor 
of  The  Church  at  Home  and  Abroad.  Philadelphia,  1886-1897. 
S.  T.  D.  Ham.  College,  1857. 


20  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

Preserved  Smith,  who  had  been  graduated  in 
1872,  and  had  just  returned  from  extensive 
studies  abroad,  was  called  in  for  the  ensuing 
year  as  an  assistant  instructor  in  History,  while 
the  task  of  lecturing  on  the  history  of  Christian 
Doctrine,  in  addition  to  Systematic  Theology, 
was  still  laid  on  me. 

The  decease  of  Prof.  Thomas  compelled  at 
once  some  new  adjustment  of  the  work  in  his 
department,  and  Dr.  Evans  was  assigned  to  the 
Greek  chair,  a  position  which  he  afterwards  held 
without  change  until  his  death.  Yet  the  ad- 
vanced work  in  Hebrew  exposition  was  still  left 
in  his  hands,  while  Mr.  Smith  was  transferred 
from  his  work  in  Church  History  to  the  task  of 
preliminary  instruction  in  the  Hebrew  language. 
To  fill  the  vacancy  thus  created  in  the  depart- 
ment of  Church  History,  Rev.  Zephaniah  M. 
Humphrey,  D.  D.,  was  called  in  May,  1875, 
from  a  prominent  pastorate  in  Philadelphia,  and 
entered  upon  his  duties,  the  History  of  Doctrine 
and  Church  Polity  included,  in  the  ensuing  aut- 
umn. After  this  adjustment,  the  teaching  force 
remained  the  same  until  1879,  except  that  Mr. 
Smith  was  in  1876  appointed  as  an  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor, and  1879  as  full  professor,  in  Hebrew  and 
Old  Testament  Exegesis — a  position  for  which 
he  had  well  qualified  himself  by  another  inter- 
vening period  of  special  study  in  Europe. 

But  other  changes  were  soon  to  follow.  In 
June,  1879,  Rev.  Henry  Smith,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  21 

after  a  period  of  declining  health,  passed  into  an- 
other life,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three.  Born  and 
educated  in  New  England,  as  Dr.  Allen  also  had 
been,  he  had  spent  his  ministerial  life  in  Ohio — 
first  as  Professor  for  fifteen  years,  and  then  for 
ten  years  as  President  of  Marietta  College.  His 
connection  with  Lane  Seminary,  not  subtracting 
his  absence  of  four  years  as  a  pastor,  extended 
from  1855  to  1879 — a  period  of  more  than  twenty- 
three  years.  He  was  by  choice  and  habit  a  thor- 
ough scholar,  and  had  made  himself  acquainted 
with  much  of  the  best  that  is  known  in  theology 
and  philosophy  and  exegesis,  as  well  as  in  his 
own  specific  department.  To  that  department  he 
brought  not  only  accurate  and  systematic  knowl- 
edge of  what  is  involved  in  rhetoric  and  logic  and 
kindred  disciplines,  especially  as  related  to  the 
work  of  making  and  delivering  sermons,  but  also 
an  eminent  example  of  skill  and  power  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  that  higrh  art.  The  first  sermon  that  I 
ever  heard  from  him  was  preached  in  January, 
1856,  at  my  own  installation  as  pastor  at  Co- 
lumbus. His  theme  was  the  Ministry  for  the 
West  ;  and  so  vigorous  and  expansive,  and  really 
overpowering,  was  his  description  of  the  kind  of 
man  needful  to  fill  acceptably  the  pulpit  in  this 
region,  that  I  felt  more  like  fleeing  back  to  the 
quiet  village  in  Western  New  York  from  which 
I  had  come,  than  undertaking  the  new  service  to 
which  I  had  supposed  myself  to  be  providentially 
called.      Those  who  heard  him  preach  from  time 


22  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

to  time  in  the  Chapel,  and  especially  those  who 
listened  to  his  profound  and  solemn  series  of  dis- 
courses on  the  Ten  Commandments,  can  never 
forget  the  deep  impression  made  by  his  com- 
manding person,  his  clarion  voice,  his  forceful 
gestures,  as  well  as  his  earnest  expositions  of  di- 
vine   truth. 

The  tine  tributes  paid  to  him  shortly  after 
his  decease,  by  President  Andrews,  his  successor 
in  the  presidency  of  Marietta  College,  and  by 
President  Tuttle,  of  Wabash  College  and  his 
pupil,  render  needless  any  further  tribute  from 
me.  It  was  a  sad  thing  to  me  to  see  him,  like  his 
lifelong  friend  and  associate,  Allen,  passing  out 
of  a  sphere  which  he  had  filled  so  well,  througli 
progressive  disease  and  enfeeblement,  although 
his  dauntless  will  kept  him  at  his  beloved  em- 
ployment until  a  very  short  time  before  his  work 
was  closed  by  death.  The  question  of  a  succes- 
sor soon  arose,  and  in  the  follov^ing  May,  1879, 
Rev.  James  Eells,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  then  a  pastor 
in  Oakland,  California,  was  chosen  to  fill  the 
position,  with  some  addition  of  certain  specific 
branches,  particularly  Church  Polity  and  Church 
Work.  He  came  into  the  Seminary  in  the  au- 
tumn, at  the  height  of  manly  vigor  apparently, 
bringing  with  him  a  large  experience  both  as 
pastor  and  as  Professor  of  Homiletics  in  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  San  Francisco,  and  at 
once  impressing  all  by  his  imperial  presence, 
his  genial  manners,  his  knowledge  of    men  and 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  23 

affairs,  and  his  ability  in  the  pulpit,  as  a  fit  suc- 
cessor of  the  great  man  who  had  fallen.  The 
Faculty  now  consisted  of  five  professors,  and  the 
curriculum  of  studies  had  been  both  broadened 
in  extent  and,  probably,  better  distributed  and 
defined  among  those  engaged  in  the  common 
work.  The  attendance  of  students  in  1879  was 
thirty-four,  which  number  had  been  for  some 
years,  and  for  some  years  after  continued  to  be, 
the  annual  average.  There  was  much  to  en- 
courage, and  comparatively  little  to  depress 
hope  in  the  general  situation — that  wide  sorrow 
excepted,  which  the  death  of  three  such  conspic- 
uous teachers  in  the  short  period  of  eight  years 
had  occasioned. 

The  great  forward  movement  of  the  decade 
was  the  erection  in  1879  of  this  central  building 
as  Chapel,  Recitation  Hall,  and  Gymnasium, 
and  in  the  following  year  of  the  north  wing  as 
a  Dormitory.  Better  provision  for  class  instruc- 
tion, and  for  the  general  exercises  of  the  Sem- 
inary, had  long  been  imperatively  needed,  and 
at  one  time  it  was  proposed  to  reconstruct  the 
Chapel,  then  vacated,  for  these  purposes,  re- 
serving the  original  front  of  the  Seminary  as 
determined  by  the  Chapel  and  old  Dormitory,  and 
retaining  the  campus  as  it  had  stood  in  its  vast- 
ness  from  the  beginning.  But  during  several 
preceding  years  the  old  locusts  first,  and  then 
the  catalpas,  had  mostly  been  removed,  leaving 
a  broad  and  open  space  in  front  ;    and  after  full 


24  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    T.ANE. 

examination  it  was  decided  to  bring  the  Semi- 
nary forward  into  this  vacant  space,  and  so  es- 
tablish a  new  campus,  smaller,  indeed,  than  the 
old,  but  yet  large  enough  for  all  uses,  and  am- 
ply supplied  with  young  trees,  which  preceding 
generations  of  students  had  planted.  This  central 
building  was  dedicated  December  18,  1879,  in 
conjunction  with  the  inauguration  of  Professor 
Eells.  Over  half  of  its  cost,  which  was  a  little 
more  than  $20,000,  was  a  donation  from  the 
same  generous  friend.  Preserved  Smith,  Esq., 
who  provided  the  means  to  erect  the  Library 
Building  fifteen  years  before,  and  the  other  half 
was  secured  from  other  friends.  The  cost  of 
the  wing,  with  furniture,  was  about  $26,000,  and 
this  also,  with  the  exception  of  $6,000  supplied 
from  the  Endowment  Fund,  was  obtained  from 
various  friendly  sources,  Mr.  Smith  giving  one 
fourth  of  the  amount,  while  Anthony  H.  Hinkle, 
Esq.,  another  generous  and  faithful  trustee,  and 
sometime  Treasurer,  furnished  the  steam-heat- 
ing apparatus  for  the  whole  structure.  One  pro- 
fessorial dwelling  had  alread}^  been  built,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  two  standing  long  before  on  the 
south  side  of  the  campus,  and  shortly  after,  the 
two  others  on  the  north  side  were  built,  thus 
completing  the  arrangement  as  it  now  stands. 
The  effect  of  these  material  improvements  upon 
the  public  mind  was  quite  marked,  and  those 
who  had  looked  long  on  the  old  structures  as 
mute  prophecies  of  the  decline  of  the  Institution 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  25 

itself  began  to  realize  that  Lane  had  still  many 
warm  and  generous  friends  who  would  not  suffer 
it  to  fall  into  decay. 

So  far  as  the  work  within  the  Seminary 
was  concerned,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  more 
satisfactory  or  fruitful  period  can  be  named 
than  that  which  was  inaugurated  by  the  con- 
struction of  these  spacious  and  pleasant  ac- 
commodations. The  instructors  were  greatly 
encouraged  in  their  harmonious  endeavors  to 
make  here  the  best  theological  institution  pos- 
sible, and  the  students  were  as  a  body  intelli- 
gent and  competent  and  faithful,  and  from  year 
to  year  they  went  out  to  service  in  the  churches 
well  prepared  in  mind  and  heart  for  their  hol}^ 
office,  and  as  a  body  popular  everywhere.  Bet- 
ter graduates  at  no  stage  in  the  history  of  Lane 
had  ever  cfone  out  from  these  walls.  The 
library,  of  which  about  four  thousand  volumes 
had  been  purchased  many  years  before  by  Prof. 
Stowe,  and  four  thousand  more  by  Prof.  Day 
shortly  before  his  departure,  and  which  had 
been  .  admirably  arranged  for  useful  reference 
and  reading,  was  now  annually  supplied  from 
the  income  of  a  permanent  fund  of  nearly 
$10,000,  with  much  of  the  best  exegetical,  the- 
ological, historical  literature  of  the  day,  and 
was  much  more  in  use  than  it  could  have  been 
as  it  was  once,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
stored  away  in  the  loft  of  the  old  Chapel.  The 
scholarship  fund  had  grown  from  $7,000  to  more 


26  TklR'TY    YEAkS    IN    LANE. 

than  $50,000  and  was  an  invaluable  help  in  as- 
sisting students  who  needed  pecuniary  aid  ;  and 
to  crown  all,  the  watchful  attention  of  the  Board 
of  Trust,  and  the  large  generosity  of  some 
among  its  members,  had  been  a  constant  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  Institution  at  every 
point.  I  look  back  to  those  years  as  among 
the  brightest  and  most  satisfying  that  I  have 
seen  here  in  a  whole  generation. 

One  dark  shadow  rested  on  the  whole. 
Early  in  November,  1881,  Prof.  Humphrey 
was  stricken  down  with  fatal  disease  in  the 
midst  of  his  usefulness,  and  after  a  brief  illness 
passed  into  the  immortal  life.*  He  had  been  in 
the  Seminary  but  six  years  ;  yet  during  that 
lime  he  had  commended  himself  in  many  ways 
to  the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  who  were 
associated  with  him  here.  In  his  own  depart- 
ment he  was  an  assiduous  student,  a  thoughtful 
and  accurate  historian,  and  every  way  a  suc- 
cessful teacher,  fond  of  his  classes,  and  in  turn 
beloved  by  them.  He  accepted  cordially  his 
share  of  the  general  duties  devolving  upon  him, 
especially  in  connection  with  the  matter  of 
building,  and  was  a  valuable  member  of  the 
committee    to    which    that    enterprise  had   been 


*Rev.  Zephaniah  M.  Humphrey,  D.  D.,  was  born  at  Amherst, 
Mass.,  August  29,  1824.  Graduated  at  Amherst  College,  1843,  ^"^^ 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  1849.  Pastor  at  Racine,  1850-56  ; 
Milwaukee,  1856-59;  First  Church,  Chicago,  1859-68;  Calvary 
Church,  Philadelphia,  1868-75  J  Professor  of  Church  History  in 
LANE,  1875  till  his  death,  Nov.  13,  1881. 


27  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

entrusted.  He,  was  experienced  and  wise  in  all 
such  affairs,  as  the  address  which  he  made  at 
the  dedication  of  this  Chapel  pleasantly  mani- 
fests. His  spiritual  influence  upon  the  students 
and  upon  us  all  was  salutary  and  quickening, 
and  his  personal  example  was  a  fine  illustration 
of  what  natural  manhood  may,  through  grace, 
become.  His  ministry  was  much  desired  among 
the  churches,  and  his  sermons  were  always  in- 
structive and  profitable  to  attentive  minds.  His 
last  discourse,  delivered  by  request  of  the  Fac- 
ulty a  fortnight  before  his  death  to  the  Synod 
of  Indiana  at  Crawfordsville,  was  on  The  Min- 
isterial Office  ;  its  Dignity,  its  Attractiveness, 
and  its  Rewards.  And  so,  having  beautifully 
illustrated  in  his  own  life  as  both  teacher  and 
preacher  the  truth  then  proclaimed  as  his  part- 
ing message,  he  entered  in  his  fifty-eighth  year 
on  those  rewards  which  he  had  so  felicitously 
described.  His  work  here,  though  brief,  is  still 
bearing  precious  fruitage. 

In  the  following  May,  1882,  Rev.  John  De 
Witt,  D.D.,  also  a  pastor  in  Philadelphia,  where 
his  historical  discourses  had  first  revealed  his 
special  fitness  for  such  a  position,  was  elected  to 
fill  the  vacancy  which  death  had  created.  His 
inaugural  discourse  was  an  able  discussion  of 
Church  History,  as  a  Science,  as  a  Theological 
Discipline  and  as  a  Mode  of  the  Gospel,  as  that 
of  Dr.  Humphrey  had  been  on  History  as  a 
Record  of    Thought — of    thought    more    than    of 


28  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

events.  Both  of  these  addresses  were  charac- 
teristic. Professor  De  Witt  came  to  the  institu- 
tion well  equipped  for  the  service  to  which  he 
was  invited,  and  as  a  teacher  he  was  diligent  and 
successful,  while  in  his  relations  with  other 
teachers  he  was  in  a  high  degree  brotherly  and 
enjoyable.  In  1888  he  resigned  to  accept  a 
professorship  of  Apologetics  in  the  McCormick 
Seminary  at  Chicago,  and  after  three  or  four 
years  left  that  position  to  resume  his  work  as  an 
historical  instructor  in  Princeton  Seminary,  the 
scene  of  his  earlier  training.*' 

Scarcely  had  the  sense  of  sorrow  in  the 
loss  of  Dr.  Humphrey  passed  measurably  away, 
though  his  place  had  been  supplied,  before  the 
Seminary,  stripped  of  its  jewels  again  and 
aorain,  was  called  to  face  still  another  bereave- 
ment.  On  the  ninth  of  March,  1886,  Professor 
Eells,  the  fifth  in  the  series  within  sixteen  years, 
was  taken  from  us  as  in  a  moment. f  I  had 
known  him  for  more  than  forty  years,  originally 
as    my    first    teacher    in    Latin,   afterwards   as    a 


*REV.  JOHN  DE  WITT,  D.  D.  LL.  D.  Born  Harrisburg, 
Pa.,  Oct.  lo,  1842;  Grad.  College  of  New  Jersey,  1861,  and  Union 
Sem.,  N.  Y.,  1865.  Pastor  Irvington,  N.  Y.,  1865-9;  Center  Church, 
Boston,  Mass.,  1869-76;  Tenth  Church,  Phila.,  1876,  till  his  election 
to  the  Chair  of  Church  History  in  LANE,  1882;  resigned  1888. 

tREV.  JAMES  EELLS,  D.  D.  LL.  D.  Born  in  Westmore- 
land, N.  Y.,  Aul^  27,  1822,  Grad.  Hamilton  Coll.,  1844,  and  Au- 
burn Theol.  Sem.,  1851;  Pastor  Penn  Yan,  N.  Y.,  1851-4;  Cleve- 
land, O.,  1854-9;  R.  D.  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1859-67;  First 
Church.  San  Francisco,  1867-71;  Cleveland,  O.,  1 87 1-4;  Oakland, 
Cal.,  1874-9;  and  Prof,  of  Practical  Theology  in  LANE  till  his 
death,  March  9,  1886. 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  29 

member,  though  in  different  classes,  of  the  same 
Theological  Seminary  ;  then  as  a  neighbor  in 
the  pastoral  office,  first  in  western  New  York 
and  afterwards  in  Ohio,  and  also  as  a  valued 
relative  by  marriage,  and  through  all  the  years 
an  intimate  friend.  His  coming  to  Lane  was  an 
event  in  which  I  greatly  rejoiced,  and  in  all  his 
effective  work  here  he  had  my  ardent  sympa- 
thy. He  confided  in  me  as  I  habitually  con- 
fided in  him  ;  he  was  for  many  years  before  he 
came  here,  and  still  more  afterwards,  my  prized 
companion  in  enjoyment  as  well  as  in  service, 
and  he  died  in  my  arms. 

Dr.  Eells  possessed  many  qualities  which 
made  him  attractive  and  valuable  in  this  place. 
While  he  was  less  scholarly  or  profound  than 
his  predecessor,  and  while  his  exposition  of 
homiletical  topics  was  less  technical  and  less 
complete,  abstractly  viewed,  he  was  even  more 
magnetic  and  inspiring  in  manner,  and  no  less 
effective  in  teaching  the  students  how  to  preach 
so  as  to  reach  and  help  men.  His  experience 
of  thirty  years  as  a  pastor  greatly  aided  him  in 
this  regard,  and  with  his  previous  work  as  in- 
structor in  Homiletics  on  the  Pacific  coast  to 
help  him,  he  was  no  novice  in  his  chosen  chair. 
His  general  influence  over  the  students  was  al- 
ways both  commanding  and  helpful,  while  in 
the  Faculty  and  in  caring  for  the  affairs  of  the 
Institution  he  was  always  ready  to  do  his  part. 
During  the  brief  period  of   less  than    six    years 


30  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

in  which  he  wrought  here,  he  did  much  toward 
securing  funds  and  helping  on  the  Seminary 
interests,  and  had  he  lived  it  was  his  purpose  to 
take  still  larger  share  in  the  prosecution  of  pro- 
posed plans  for  its  advancement.  As  a  preacher 
he  was  very  highly  prized,  and  consented  alto- 
gether too  much  for  his  own  good  to  fill  adja- 
cant  pulpits,  and  to  speak  in  various  ways  for 
the  Church  at  large.  Like  Dr.  Humphrey,  he 
had  been  Moderator  of  one  of  our  General  As- 
semblies since  the  Reunion,  and  this  fact  added 
to  the  value  of  such  service,  as  it  also  made  the 
lamentation  over  his  decease  almost  continental. 
But  the  strain  of  all  this  upon  his  splendid  phy- 
sical structure  was  too  great,  a  subtle  disease  of 
the  heart  laid  hold  of  him,  and  at  the  age  of 
sixty-three  he  entered  into  rest. 

The  general  condition  of  the  Seminary,  not- 
withstanding these  successive  bereavements, 
was  in  a  high  degree  encouraging.  It  cannot 
be  better  described  than  in  the  folio  vving  state- 
ment mad(i  by  the  Trustees  and  Faculty  jointly 
in  1886,  when  they  were  endeavoring  to  interest 
friends  in  the  Institution  and  its  future.  Their 
circular  says  : 

^'During  the  past  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
the  Seminary  has  made  healthful  and  encourag- 
ing progress.  Within  this  period  the  new  Hall 
and  Dormitory  have  been  erected,  three  new 
houses  have  been  built  for  the  Professors,  the 
Boarding    Hall    has    been    renovated,     and     the 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  .  31 

Campus    much    improved.      Within    this    period 
the  General  Fund,  devoted  to  the  support  of  the 
Institution;    the    Scholarship    Funds,  whose  in- 
come    is    used    to    aid    the    students;    and    the 
Library  Fund,  given  for  the   care   and    increase 
of  the  Librarj^  have  also  been  greatly  enlarged. 
Within  the  same  time  the   Faculty  has   been   in- 
creased from  four  to  five,  and  additional  instruc- 
tion has  been    secured    from    other    teachers    in 
Elocution  and  in  the  department  of  Apologetics. 
The  course  and  style  of  training  have  also  been 
greatly  improved,    and   the   education  given   has 
come    to    equal    that    of    any   Seminary    in    our 
Church.      Meanwhile,    the    number    of    students 
has  gradually  increased,  until  for  the  past  three 
years  it  has   reached   an   aggregate   of  fifty,  and 
the   prospect   for   further  increase  is  highly  en- 
couraging.     And  while   the   Institution   has  thus 
been    growing    into   greater  capacity  and  effec- 
tiveness  inwardly,    its    place    in    the    confidence 
and  esteem  of  the  Church  has    been    more    and 
more  assured  ;  the  loyalty  of    its   earlier  friends 
has  strengthened  with  the  years,  and  many  new 
friends  have  been  raised  up  for  its   support;  its 
influence  as  a  representative  Seminary  has  been 
more   widely   and  beneficently  felt,    and,   in  our 
judgment,  its  future  has   become    more    assured 
and  more  full  of  promise  than  ever  before." 

It  is  not  in  harmony  with  my  general  pur- 
pose to  refer  at  any  length  to  those  instructors, 
still    among    the    living,    whose   several   connec- 


3^  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

tions  with  the  Seminary  occurred  at  later  dates. 
In  May,  1886,  Rev.  W.  H.  Roberts,  D.  D.  was 
elected  to  succeed  Professor  Eells  in  what  had 
come  to  be  designated  as  the  department  of 
Practical  Theology.  His  connection  here  was 
terminated  in  1893  by  the  suspension  of  that  de- 
partment as  a  separate  section  of  the  Semi- 
nary curriculum  and  the  distribution  of  its 
functions,  (so  far  as  this  was  practicable)  among 
the  occupants  of  other  chairs.  In  1886  Rev. 
James  A,  Craig,  Ph.  D.,  began  his  work  as  an 
instructor  in  Hebrew,  for  the  first  year  or  two 
by  private  provision,  but  afterwards  through  an 
annual  appointment  by  the  Board,  until  in  1890 
he  was  made  adjunct  Professor  of  Hebrew  and 
Biblical  Exegesis,  which  position  he  held  with 
marked  success  as  a  teacher  until  he  resigned  on 
account  of  the  financial  straits  of  the  Institution 
in  1891.  In  1888,  after  the  withdrawal  of  Dr. 
De  Witt,  Rev.  Arthur  C.  McGiflert,  Ph.  D.  was 
appointed  instructor  in  Church  History,  and  two 
years  later  he  was  chosen  as  Professor  in  that 
department,  and  continued  to  hold  that  place 
until  July,  1893,  when  he  resigned  to  accept  a 
similar  Professorship  in  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  New  York  City.  At  the  same 
date  occurred  the  resignation  and  retirement  of 
Professor  Henry  Preserved  Smith,  D.  D.  who 
had  been  connected  with  the  Institution  for 
years,  and  who  from  1879  on  had  conducted 
with    great    fidelity    and    diligence,   and   with  a 


THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE.  33 

large  measure  of  success,  the  instruction  in  the 
Hebrew  language  and  literature.  He  had  also 
served  for  several  years  as  Librarian,  an  office 
held  first  by  Dr.  Evans,  and  then  from  1872  to 
1884,  by  myself,  and  in  various  other  ways  and 
connections  had  proved  himself,  though  re- 
latively young,  a  valuable  member  of  the 
Faculty.* 

Early  in  1892  occurred  the  resignation  of 
Prof.  Llewelyn  J.  Evans,  LL.  D.,  in  order  to  ac- 
cept a  similiar  department  of  instruction  which 
had  been  tendered  to  him  in  the  Theological 
College  connected  with  the  Calvinistic  Metho- 
dist Communion  in  Wales,  and  located  in  the 
beautiful  village  of  Bala  in  that  principality. 
His  resignation  was  accepted  with  profound 
regret,  and  only  because  he  cherished  the  hope 
that  his  shattered  health  would  be  restored  in 
that  stimulating  climate,  and  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  new  associations  and  a  somewhat  varied 
form  of  work.  But  that  hope  was  vain,  and  in 
July  his  exhausted  vitality  gave  way,  and  he 
passed  forever  into  the  fellowship  of  the  glori- 
fied. His  remains  were  brought  back  in  the 
autumn,  and  were  laid  with  appropriate  ser- 
vices and   with    many    a    tear    in    the    beautiful 


*REV.  HENRY  PRESERVED  SMITH,  D.  D.  Born,  Troy. 
O.,  Oct,  23.  1847;  Grad.  Amherst  College;  1869;  Lane,  1869-72; 
Instructor  in  Church  History,  Lane  Seminary,  1874-75;  Instructor 
in  Hebrew,  do.,  1875-76;  studying  at  Leipzig,  Saxony,  1876-77; 
Assistant  Professor  of  Hebrew,  Lane  Seminary,  1877-79;  Professor, 
do.,  1879-93. 


34  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

cemetery  where  also  lies,  not  far  away,  the  body 
©f  the  beloved  Allen.  Dr.  Thomas  was  buried 
at  Dayton,  Dr.  Smith  at  Marietta,  Dr.  Humph- 
rey near  Chicago,  and  Dr.  Eells  in  Cleveland, 
while  these  two  who  had  loved  each  other  so 
much,  sleep  together  in  our  own  Spring  Grove.* 
The  connection  of  Professor  Evans  with 
Lane  Seminary  extended,  with  the  interruption 
of  a  year  spent  abroad  in  search  of  health,  from 
1863  to  1892,  a  period  of  twenty-nine  years, during 
all  of  which  time  he,  was  lovingly  engrossed  by 
day  and  by  night  in  the  study  of  that  One  Book  of 
whose  doctrines  and  beauties  he  was  never 
tired  of  speaking,  and  of  whose  origin  and  au- 
thoritativeness  as  the  One  Book  of  God,  a  super- 
natural and  gracious  message  sent  from  heaven 
to  our  lost  race,  he  never  entertained  a  doubt. 
I  have  already  spoken  at  length  in  this  place  of 
what  he  was  and  came  more  and  more  to  be  as 
a  teacher  and  as  a  Christian  man,  and  the  hope 
that  what  I  have  thus  borne  already  as  my  lov- 
ing testimony  mav  yet  be  made  public,  justifies 
me  in  refraining  from  any  extended  statement 
now.  We  were  together  here  as  teachers  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  for  near- 
ly twenty  years    we    resided    side    by   side,    so 


*REV.  LLEWELYN  J.  EVANS,  D.D.  LL.  D.  Born,  Treud- 
dyn,  North  Wales,  June  27,  1833;  Racine  College,  1856;  Lane, 
1857-60;  Ord.  May,  1862  (Cincinnati  Presb.);  Pastor  Lane  Seminary 
Church,  1860-1863;  Prof.  Church  Hist.,  Lane,  1863-67;  Prof.  Bibl. 
Lit.  and  Exegesis,  1867, till  his  resignation.  April,  1892  to  accept  a 
similar  chair  in  Bala,  Wales;  died  at  Bala,  Tuly  25,  1892;  D.  D, 
Wab.  College,  1872;  LL.  D.  Hanover  Coll.,  1886. 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  35 

that  I  probably  knew  him  as  well  as  any  one 
could  know  a  nature  so  rich,  so  versatile,  and  so 
elevated.  Never  a  shadow  dimmed  our  friend- 
ship through  these  years,  and  never  a  doubt  of 
his  rare  Cliristian  manliness  and  worth  entered 
my  mind.  As  a  scholar  he  was  thorough  and 
profound,  as  a  teacher  superb,  as  a  professor 
simple  as  the  air  and  cordial  as  the  light,  as  a 
preacher  eloquent  and  thoughtful  in  a  marked 
degree,  as  a  friend  tender  and  true  in  all  rela- 
tions, as  a  citizen  loyal  to  all  righteousness  and 
hostile  to  all  sin,  and  as  a  man  one  of  those  rare 
personages  whom  we  do  not  often  see  in  such  a 
world  as  this,  and  whose  departure  from  our 
poor  life  is  like  the  going  down  of  the  sun, 
leaving' dense   darkness  everywhere. 

The  simultaneous  retirement  of  Professors 
Smith  and  McGiffert  following  so  closely  upon 
that  of  Professor  Craig  and  Drs.  Evans  and  Rob- 
erts, live  in  all,  within  fifteen  short  months,  left 
me,  as  the  sole  survivor  of  the  Faculty,  in  a  posi- 
tion whose  real  dreadfulness  I  possess  no  lan- 
guage to  describe.  I  have  no  wish  to  revert 
to  any  of  the  painful  incidents  connected  with 
this  cyclonic  disaster,  except  to  say  that  I  could 
see  no  sufficient  reason  why  Lane  Seminary 
should  swerve  from  its  historic  position  of  loy- 
alty to  the  Church,  mingled  with  just  liberty  of 
thought  either,  to  accept  a  theory  of  inspiration 
never  known  in  the  Institution  through  all  its 
sacred  past,  or  to  take  part  in  judicial  proceed- 


36  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

ings,  in  opposition-to  such  theory,  not  unlike  those 
from  which  both  Lyman  Beecher  and  the  Insti- 
tution had  suffered  so  disastrously  nearly  sixty 
years  before.  And  as  for  myself,  I  have  only 
to  add  that  while  it  was  not  possible  for  me  with 
my  measure  of  knowledge  to  accept  the  new  opin- 
ions broached  by  some  of  my  associates,  I  never 
for  a  moment  lost  my  faith  in  their  personal 
loyalty  to  the  Divine  Word,  and  therefore  found 
it  equally  impossible  to  join  with  those  who  felt 
bound  in  conscience  to  condemn  such  opinions, 
even  by  the  use  of  ecclesiastical  penalties. 

Meanwhile  for  me,  practically,  but  one  task 
remained — to  save  Lane  Seminary,  if  possible, 
from  the  rocks  on  which,  in  the  turbulence  of 
this  unexpected  storm,  it  seemed  in  danger  of 
being  wholly  wrecked.  During  the  two  years 
of  agitation  preceding  July,  1893,  the  number  of 
students  had  fallen  from  forty-five  to  thirty-four, 
and  then  from  thirty-four  to  seventeen,  the  low- 
est record,  with  one  possible  exception,  in  its 
entire  history.  There  were  other  complications 
and  ominous  possibilities  to  which  it  will  not  be 
profitable  to  refer,  but  which  were  symptomatic  in 
their  nature,  and  might  be  fraught  even  with  de- 
struction. The  Board  of  Trust  was  almost  over- 
whelmed with  both  the  calamity  actually  occur- 
ring and  the  calamity  impending,  and  in  adjourn- 
ing, after  the  acceptance  of  these  resignations, 
left  me  under  instruction  to  keep  the  keys,  and 
to  open  the  doors  if  in  the  coming  autumn    any 


THIRTY  YEARS  IN    LANE.  37 

should  come  here  seeking  instruction.  To  me 
this  was  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of  life — as 
dark  almost  as  that  day,  not  three  months  dis- 
tant, when  I  was  called  to  suffer  the  sorest  prov- 
idential bereavement  that  can  come  upon  man. 
But  God  is  most  opportune  and  most  gra- 
cious when  we  sink  into  our  deepest,  darkest  ex- 
tremity. A  competent  assistant  in  the  sacred 
languages  (Rev.  Kemper  Fullerton,  A.  M.  )  was 
found  ;  able  lecturers  were  secured  ;  every  avail- 
able provision  was  made  for  adequate  instruction 
in  the  several  branches  ;  many  friends  pledged 
their  sympathy  and  their  prayers  in  the  emer- 
gency ;  and  when  the  opening  September  day 
dawned,  not  a  smaller  but  a  considerably  larger 
number  of  students  came  in,  as  if  divinely  sent, 
like  doves  to  their  windows,  to  receive  all  the  in- 
struction and  the  stimulus  which  the  depleted  In- 
stitution could  give.  It  was  to  me  a  most  gra- 
cious and  comforting  revelation,  and  the  year 
which  thus  began  with  an  auspiciousness  alto- 
gether unexpected  went  on,  month  by  month, 
with  very  little  to  awaken  solicitude,  until  that 
bright  day  in  May,  1894,  when  the  first  year  of 
struggle  was  happily  ended.  The  next  year 
seemed  to  take  care  of  itself,  with  its  company 
of  students  increased  from  twenty-three  to 
twenty-eight,  with  its  Faculty  enlarged  by  the 
addition  .of  Rev.  Henry  W.  Hulbert,  A.  M.,  in 
the  department  of  Church  History,  with  other 
improved  provisions  for  instruction,  and  with  the 


38  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

Steadfast  and  growing  support  of  those  friends 
and  helpers  who  did  not  think  it  possible  for  Lane 
Seminary  to  die.  The  third  year  was  brighter 
still,  and  better  in  all  its  arrangements,  while  the 
attendance  rose  to  thirty-eight,  the  actual  aver- 
age for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  I  need  not 
speak  in  detail  of  these  events,  which,  in  fact, 
are  already  known  to  most  here  present ;  but  I 
desire  here  reverently  and  gratefully  to  lift  up 
into  view  the  simple  histor}^  of  these  years  during 
which  the  Institution  was  rescued  from  destruc- 
tion, and  raised  at  least  to  an  appreciable  degree 
of  prosperity,  and  cry  out  from  my  deepest  heart : 
It  is  not,  it  is  not  the  work  of  man  ;  it  is  the 
work  of  God! 

Standing  here  now  at  the  end  of  nearly  thirty 
years,  as  the  sole  survivor  amid  all  these  changes, 
and  myself  just  ready  to  pass  from  the  stage  as 
an  actor  in  these  varied  scenes,  I  desire  to  speak 
of  two  things  which  are  specially  prominent  in 
my  thought  at  this  tender  hour.  Of  these,  the 
first  is  the  constant  carefulness,  the  generous  de- 
votion, the  loving  loyalty  of  those  who  during 
this  period  have  served  the  Institution  in  the  office 
of  Trustee.  At  the  dedication  of  this  Chapel  in 
1879,  Rev.  E.  P.  Pratt,  D.  D.,  himself  a  valued 
trustee  for  many  years,  made  an  address  fitlv 
commemorative  of  those  who  during  the  first 
thirty  years  or  more  had  filled  this  office.  A  no- 
ble body  of  men  they  were,  both  those  who  con- 
stituted the  original   Board,  and  those  who  took 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  39 

up  the  sacred  task  in  the  succeeding  years.  All 
have  now  passed  from  life,  excepting  the  vener- 
able George  M.  Maxwell,  D.  D.,  who  became  a 
trustee  in  1859,  and  who  was  for  thirty-one 
years  the  faithful  President  of  the  Board.  It  is 
to  me  an  impressive  fact  that,  with  this  exception, 
all  who  took  part  in  the  election  of  Dr.  Nelson 
and  myself  have  already  joined  that  blessed  com- 
pany, and  the  majority  of  those  who  since  then 
have  filled  this  office  have  also  entered  into  rest — 
four  within  the  past  four  or  five  years. 

But  I  bear  grateful  testimony  at  this  time 
to  the  remarkable  fidelity  and  remarkable  gen- 
'erosity  of  both  the  dead  and  the  living.  It  is 
within  my  personal  knowledge  that  the  larger 
part  of  all  the  money  received  for  various 
uses  during  the  past  thirty  years  has  come 
from  trustees.  In  the  numerous  plans  for  the 
improvement  of  buildings  and  the  campus,  for 
the  increase  of  the  permanent  endowment,  and 
for  the  accumulation  of  scholarship  and  library 
funds,  they  have  always  been  cordial,  have, 
always  been  first  to  make  sacrifices,  and  have 
alwcys  served  without  compensation,  even  for 
traveling  expenses.  Without  their  prompt  sup- 
port this  noble  building  could  never  have  been 
reared,  and  without  their  donations  the  library 
and  scholarship  funds  would  be  little  more  than 
a  fragment.  Ministers  and  laymen  have  vied 
with  one  another  in  this  helpful  service  ;  and  if 
at  any  time  difi"erences  of  judgment  or  of  policy 


40  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

have  arisen,  all  have  acquiesced  cordially  in 
the  results  finally  determined.  It  should  be 
gratefully  added  that  when  their  course  has 
been  criticised  and  their  administration  as- 
sailed ;  when  they  have  been  called  upon  to 
take  steps  in  conflict  with  the  charter  and  the 
history  of  the  Seminary,  and  have  been  con- 
demned for  refusing  to  swerve  from  their  alle- 
giance to  the  sacred  trust  committed  to  their 
keeping,  they  have,  stood  by  their  convictions 
and  their  sense  of  duty  at  whatsoever  tempo- 
rary cost.  To  their  faithfulness  and  their  gen- 
erosity and  their  Spartan  loyalty  the  Institution 
really  owes  its  life.  And  1  should  be  untrue  to 
my  own  deepest  feeling  if  I  did  not  avail 
myself  of  this  last  public  opportunity  to  ex- 
press my  personal  gratitude  for  the  support 
which  the  trustees  as  a  body  have  always 
extended  to  me,  and  for  their  brotherly  care  for 
my  remaining  years. 

The  other  matter  of  special  interest  relates 
to  the  large  body  of  Alumni  who  during  these 
sixty  years  have  gone  out  from  Lane  as  min- 
isters not  only  into  nearly  all  parts  of  our  own 
land,  but  into  every  continent  and  many  sec- 
tions of  the  earth.  It  has  been  the  usage  here 
to  place  on  the  roll  of  alumni  not  merely  the 
graduates,  who  for  the  first  forty-five  years  con- 
stituted about  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
number,  but  all  who  have  spent  one  year 
or  more  as  regular  students    in  the    Institution. 


THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE.  41 

The  aggregate  of  the  names  thus  enrolled  is 
1,087,  and  of  this  aggregate  597  were  students 
prior  to  the  year  1867,  and  490,  not  incl-jding 
any  now  in  the  Seminary,  since  that  date.  In 
fact  the  difference  between  the  two  periods  is 
very  slight.  A  careful  examination  of  the  Min- 
utes of  the  last  General  Assembly  shows  that  of 
those  who  left  the  Institution  prior  to  1867,  only 
83  now  remain,  and  most  of  these  are  retired 
from  active  service,  while  301  of  those  in  whose 
training  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  sharing, 
appear  in  that  list.  Forty  or  fifty  others  who 
have  studied  here  are  enrolled  in  other  evan- 
gelical denominations.  And  it  is  an  inexpress- 
ible comfort  to  me  to  think  that,  countino-  out 
those  who,  though  registered  in  the  Minutes, 
are  for  various  reasons  not  in  the  regular 
service,  there  remains  still  so  large  a  body  of 
brethren,  my  own  loved  puf^ils,  who  are  now 
diligently  serving  the  Master  in  our  own 
church  and  in  other  evangelical  communions. 
They  are  widely  scattered,  the  large  majority 
of  them  laboring  in  Ohio  and  the  adjacent  cen- 
tral States  ;  many  others  in  the  farther  west 
and  on  the  Pacific  slope,  and  several  in  heathen 
lands. 

It  has  been  my  joy  to  follow  this  goodly 
company  as  they  have  gone  forth  into  the  great 
harvest  field  ;  to  note  their  fidelity,  almost  with- 
out exception,  to  the  doctrines  which  have  been 
taught   them  ;    to   watch    their    various  labors  in 


42  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

the   Church,  in  Christian    institutions,  and  else- 
where ;    to    weep    with   them    in    the    afflictions 
which    some    among    them    have   been  called  to 
sulTer  ;   and  to  rejoice  with  them  as  I  have  seen 
them    in    glorious     scenes    of     revival,    bringing 
their  sheaves    with  them.      It   v/as   my  pri\^lege 
at    the    dedication    of    this    chapel,   in    1869,   to 
bear   testimony  in  behalf  of  the  Faculty  to  the 
work  and  the  great  usefulness  of  those  who  up 
to  that  time  had    been    students  here.      I   spoke 
then,  having  full    statistics    in   hand,  of  the   fact 
that  these  alumni  had  been  a  race  of  preachers, 
catching  their  inspiration  from  Lyman  Beecher 
and  his   associates    and   successors,  and  making 
it  the    main    business  of    their  lives  to  put  into 
practice  the  theological  and  homiletical  instruc- 
tions which  they  had  received  here.     I  spoke  of 
the     missionary     spirit     which     had     prevailed 
among  them  and  which  had  incited  them  to  go 
out    as    messengers    of    Christ    not    only  to  the 
destitute  and  distant  frontiers  of  our  own  coun- 
try,  but    into    pagan    lands    and    the    benighted 
islands    of    the    sea.      I    spoke    of    the  fact  that 
labor  for  and  in  revivals  had  been  very  largely 
characteristic  of  these   men,   and  of  the  marked 
success  which   had  accompanied  their  efforts  in 
saving  souls.      I   spoke   also  of   their  ardent  ser- 
vices   in    the    broad    field    of    Christian   reform, 
especially  in    connection    with  the  awful   sin  of 
intemperance  and  with   that  horrible  iniquity  of 
slavery  which   had   just  before   been   blotted  out 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  4^ 

with  blood,  and  of  the  eminent  services  which 
some  of  them  had  rendered  in  various  ways  in 
the  great  cause  of  Christian  education.  And  I 
further  said  that  all  this  good  work  was  yery 
largely  due  to  that  type  of  Calvinistic  doctrine, 
that  practical  and  preachable  theology,  which 
they  had  learned  while  sitting  here  at  the  feet 
of  those  illustrious  teachers  and  preachers  of 
whom  I  have  spoken. 

What  I  said  then  is  true  still— more  true 
than  before,  by  so  much  as  the  teaching  force 
here  has  been  enlarged,  the  curriculum  of 
studies  broadened,  and  the  providental  stimu- 
lants to  diligence  and  consecration  increased. 
It  has  been  more  and  more  my  supreme  aim  to 
give  to  those  under  my  instruction  the  same 
type  of  theology  which  their  predecessors  had 
learned  from  those  who  taught  in  the  earlier 
days,  and  to  tQach  them  how  to  use  that  theology 
for  the  only  purpose  for  which  any  theology  has 
any  value — the  instruction,  persuasion,  convic- 
tion and  conversion  of  sinners,  and  the  edifica- 
tion of  saints  and  of  the  Church.  That  type  of 
theology,  as  I  humbly  conceive,  was  born  not 
of  man  or  by  man,  but  of  the  living  Scripture 
primarily.  It  aims  to  exalt  the  Bible  above  all 
the  teachings  and  creeds,  even  of  the  wisest  and 
best  of  believers  and  of  churches.  It  seeks  to 
proclaim  the  law  of  God  in  all  its  clearness, 
emphasis,  solemnity,  as  the  supreme  arbiter  in 
the  ethical  life  of  man.      It    endeavors    to    exalt 


44  THIkTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

the  moral  government  of  God  over  man,  as  the 
great  central  fact  in  human  history — a  govern- 
ment including  in  its  sweep  all  mankind  and  all 
of  the  life  of  each  human  being,  and  ruling  in 
infinite  majesty  over  the  acts  and  destinies  of  the 
race.  It  strives  to  offer  the  Gospel  as  the 
divinely  ordained  feast  of  grace  for  the  world, 
and  in  the  name  of  Christ  to  invite  the  world  in 
its  hunger  and  sin  and  sorrow  to  come  and  be 
fed,  It  strenuously  maintains  the  doctrine  of 
human  ability  notwithstanding  all  the  moral  dis- 
abilities surrounding  and  impairing  it  ;  it  empha- 
sizes human  responsibility  for  every  moment  of 
continuance  in  sin  ;  it  proclaims  the  guilt  of  the 
sinner  for  all  disobedience,  and  specially  for  the 
crowning  offense  of  rejecting  this  blessed  Gos- 
pel. It  denounces  excuses,  defies  cavils,  resists 
unbelief  as  both  irrational  and  wicked  ;  it  con- 
vinces the  gainsayer,  encourages  the  feeble, 
enlightens  the  ignorant,  strengthens  the  godly, 
and  by  a  thousand  penetrating  arguments  seeks 
to  bring  all  who  hear  to  faith,  to  holiness  and 
to  God. 

Such  a  theology,  so  conceived  and  held 
and  so  preached,  will  always  have  power.  Men 
will  hear  it,  and  their  reason  and  their  con- 
sciences will  be  moved  by  it  ;  it  will  bring 
them  immediately  to  the  more  vital  questions  in 
religion,  and  will  lead  them  on  to  reformation, 
to  public  confession,  to  holy  trust  and  love  and 
hope.      Churches    will    grow   under    it,   both    in 


THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE,  45 

numbers  and  in  spiritual  activity  and  fruit.  And 
this  is  especially  true  in  such  a  country  and 
among  such  a  people  as  ours,  for  the  American 
mind,  amid  all  the  noise  and  speculation  and 
doubt  that  are  current,  after  all  spontaneously 
welcomes  such  a  theology,  proclaimed  in  the 
true  spirit,  and  freely  confesses  its  sacred  claim 
both  to  support  and  to  allegiance.  Such  a  type 
of  theology  has  been  inculcated  here  from  the 
beginning,  living,  earnest,  progressive,  rever- 
ent and  practical — a  theology  shaped  through- 
out with  supreme  reference  to  the  exigencies  of 
preaching  ;  and  in  proclaiming  such  a  theology 
the  Alumni  of  Lane  have  found,  are  finding, 
will  always  find,  favor  with  God  and  with  man. 
For  all  that  this  blessed  company  of 
Alumni,  older  and  younger,  has  been  to  me,  in 
the  line  of  inspiration  in  study,  of  diligence  in 
teaching,  of  enthusiasm  and  courage,  in  such 
labors  as  I  have  been  called  to  carry  on  for 
them  or  with  them,  I  shall  sing  great  songs  of 
gratitude  to  God  while  I  live.  I  trust  that 
though  I  shall  vanish  from  their  sight,  I  shall 
not  disappear  from  their  remembrance,  and  that 
in  the  years  of  decline  which  are  before  me  I 
shall  be  carried  in  their  hearts,  even  as  they 
will  be  carried  in  mine  until  that  heart  shall 
cease  to  beat.  And  I  still  more  earnestly  desire 
and  pray  before  God,  that,  though  they  should 
forget  the  teacher,  they  may  never  lose  either 
their  faith  in    or    their    inspiration    and    energy 


46  THIRTY.  YEARS    IN    LANE. 

drawn  from  the  sublime  and  potential  doctrine 
of  God  which  it  has  been  at  once  the  most  dif- 
ficult and  the  sweetest  task  of  his  life  to  impart. 
My  daily  petition,  so  long  as  1  have  strength  to 
plead  with  God,  shall  be  that  the  sons  of  Lane 
shall  be  known  wherever  they  go,  not  simply  as 
scholars,  as  reformers,  as  specialists  in  any 
line,  but  as  living  and  earnest  and  effective 
preachers  of  a  Gospel  which  is  in  every  part 
and  passage  divine. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  asking  myself,  as  I 
approach  the  close  of  regular  service  here, 
what  shall  be  the  future  of  this  beloved  Semin- 
ary. It  is  too  much  to  hope  that  death  and 
change  will  work  no  further  ravages,  since 
change  and  death  are  universal  in  human  life. 
It  may  be  that  some  of  the  struggles  and  con- 
flicts which  have  at  times  shadowed  the  past, 
will  show  themselves  in  new  and  trying  forms 
in  the  future.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the 
waves  of  partizan  agitation  or  of  ecclesiastical 
turbulence  may  again  and  again  dash  and  break 
against  these  sacred  walls.  But  I  cannot  doubt 
that  an  Institution  which  has  stood  so  lono-  and 
survived  so  many  forms  of  disaster,  which  was 
planted  in  faith  and  hope  by  consecrated  minds, 
and  has  been  the  object  of  so  much  munificence 
and  of  so  much  love  and  prayer,  and  which  has 
in  it  so  many  capabilities  of  usefulness  genera- 
tion after  generation,  will  be  preserved  and 
perpetuated    here    throughout    the  coming  cen- 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE.  47 

turies.  Christ,  through  his  sainted  ones,  has 
made  too  large  an  investment  here,  not  of 
money,  sympathy  or  prayer  alone,  but  of  human 
lives  freely  builded  into  this  hallowed  struct- 
ure, to  allow  it  all  to  go  down  into  darkness 
and  ashes.  I  believe  rather  that  Lane  Semin- 
ary is  a  constituent  and  permanent  factor  in 
that  great  plan  of  His  which  comprehends  the 
race,  and  which  can  be  consummated  only  in 
the  conversion  of  that  race  unto  Himself.  And 
if  the  principles  on  which  it  was  founded  are 
faithfully  maintained  ;  if  its  precious  traditions 
are  preserved,  its  safe  precedents  regarded,  its 
historic  teaching  and  temper  cherished  as  its 
choicest  heritage  ;  and  if  its  teachers  and  guard- 
ians continue  to  work  together  as  harmoniously 
and  effectively  as  in  the  past,  I  firmly  believe 
that  when  another  company  shall  gather  here 
at  the  end  of  the  first  century  in  its  life,  they 
will  be  able  to  repeat,  as  I  now  repeat  with 
devoutest  gratitude  and  hope,  that  song  of 
ancient  prophecy  addressed  to  the  troubled 
Church  of  God  : 

D  u  .9/r''",f?'^^^'^'  ^"^^"^  '^^^^  tempest,  and  not  comforted  I 
J^ehoid  !  1  will  lay  thy  stones  with  fair  colors,  and  lay  thy  founda- 
tions with  sapphires.  And  I  will  make  thy  windows  of  agates, 
and  thy  gates  of  carbuncles,  and  all  thy  borders  of  pleasant 
stones.     And  all  thy  children  shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord  : 

AND    GREAT    SHALL    BE    THE    PEACE    OF    THY    CHILDREN. 


II. 


Leaves  From  the  Early  l^istopy  of  Lane. 


PAPER  READ  AT  THE  40tli  ANNIVERSARY, 


NOVEMBER  24,  1869. 


One  of  the  surest  evidences  of  capacity  to 
use  the  future  wisely,  lies  in  a  manifested  capaci- 
ty to  comprehend  and  appreciate  the  past.  He 
who  can  patiently  and  reverently  gather  up  the 
records  of  that  past — who  can  measure  its  resour- 
ces, and  sympathize  with  its  aims,  and  give  cred- 
it even  to  its  partial  successes,  is  of  all  men  best 
fitted  to  bear  its  immature  enterprises  forward  to 
a  larger  growth,  and  a  more  conspicuous  fruit- 
age. To  him  alone  is  given  a  just  estimate  of  the 
material  in  hand  ;  to  him  alone  the  true  line  of 
maturing  development  is  revealed  ;  to  him  alone 
belong  the  inspiration,  the  vigor,  the  courage, 
essential  to  complete  success. 

The  two  great  denominations  whose  formal 
union  is  rendering  the  present  year  and  the  pres- 
ent month  historic  in  Presbyterian  annals,  and 
who  are  already  looking  forward  as  one  body  to 
a  broader  and  more  glorious  future,  may  well  ob- 
serve and  apply  this  principle.  For  that  future 
is  to  be  the  resultant,  on  the  human  side,  of  forces 
already  existing  and  of  materials  already  gath- 
ered ;  the  resultant,  in  the  main,  of  those  contri- 
butions always  varied,  sometimes  diverse,  which 
the  past  has  transmitted  as  an  inheritance  to  the 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  51 

living  present.  And  it  is  only  as  that  inheritance 
is  duly  appreciated  in  both  its  excellence  and  its 
deficiency — as  on  every  side  the  resources,  aims, 
tendencies,  results  of  that  past  are  candidly  meas- 
ured— as  present  and  prospective  processes  of  de- 
velopment are  shaped  by  wise,  careful  estimate 
of  these  existing  materials  and  forces,  that  the 
future  of  hope  can  be  transformed  into  a  future  of 
glad  fruition. 

The  principle'ma}''  well  receive  a  closer  ap- 
plication. The  new  era  in  the  life  and  history 
of  these  two  denominations  brings  with  it  a  new 
era  in  the  relations  and  work  of  this  beloved  In- 
stitution. It,  indeed,  shares  henceforth  the  duty 
of  theological  training  and  ministerial  supply 
with  three  other  seminaries  located  in  the  same 
spacious  field,  and  now  associated  with  it  under 
the  broad  banner  of  a  common  faith.  Yet  in  thus 
sharing  the  field  and  the  labor,  its  sphere  is  not 
limited,  neither  is  its  responsibility  or  privilege 
diminished.  Without  trenching  in  the  least  upon 
the  prerogatives  of  other  kindred  institutions,  it 
may  yet  claim  a  larger  constituency  and  a  larger 
work  than  ever.  Nearly  a  thousand  churches  in 
the  Central  West  will  send  their  young  men  to  it 
to  receive  instruction,  and  will  in  turn  look  to  it 
for  the  supply  of  an  educated  ministry.  And 
with  such  a  constituency  and  such  opportunity, 
and  with  the  enlarged  resources  which  the  new 
era  must  confer,  how  wide  becomes  the  sphere 
thus  opening  before  it,  and  how  fruitful  and  noble 
must  its  future  be! 


52  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

As  we  look  forward  into  that  future  with  in- 
quiring and  resohite  gaze,  willing  to  accept  its 
new  responsibilities,  and  cheered  by  the  hopes  it 
already  justifies,  should  we  not  also  at  this  junc- 
ture turn  our  thoughts  backward,  and  from  the 
treasured  past  gather  up  such  lessons,  such  mo- 
tives, such  inspirations,  as  alone  can  qualify  us 
to  meet  or  shape  the  opening  future!  Is  it  not 
well  at  such  an  hour  to  call  to  remembrance  the 
early  days  in  the  history  of  this  sacred  Seminary 
— to  examine  afresh  the  foundations  on  which  it 
reposes,  and  the  sources  of  its  vitality  and 
growth  ;  and  to  consider  with  sympathetic  inter- 
est, and  perhaps  with  lenient  forbearance,  the 
purposes  that  have  animated  it,  and  the  fruitage 
it  has  borne!  It  will  surely  augur  well  for  the 
future,  if  we  thus  prove  able,  in  any  large  de- 
gree, to  comprehend  and  appreciate  the  past. 

As  early  as  1825,  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  rapid  increase  of  population  in  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  interests  of  the  denom- 
ination in  that  region,  declared  it  expedient  to  es- 
tablish a  Western  Theological  Seminary,  and  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  perfect  a  plan,  and  to  in- 
quire as  to  a  suitable  location  for  the  proposed  in- 
stitution.*     In  the  following  year  the  committee 


*To  the  General  Assembly  of  1826,  Rev.  Joshua  L.  Wilson, 
Rev.  James  Kemper,  Sen.,  and  Elder  Caleb  Kemper,  were  elected 
commissioners  from  the  Presbytery  of  Cincinnati,  especially  to  sc 
cure  the  location  of  this  Seminary  at  Walnut  Hills. 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  53 

suggested  three  locations,  of  which  Allegheny 
Town,  and  Walnut  Hills  in  the  vicinity  of  Cin- 
cinnati, were  the  most  prominent ;  and  in  the 
next  year  (1827)  the  Assembly,  by  a  small  ma- 
jority, decided  in  favor  of  the  former  place,  f  It 
is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  subject  of  es- 
tablishing, in  this  section  of  country,  a  seminary 
of  learning,  principally  designed  for  the  educa- 
tion of  pious  and  indigent  young  men,  for  the 
Gospel  ministry — to  use  the  exact  words  of  the 
original  record — should  have  continued  to  attract 


f  Through  the  kindness  of  a  member  of  the  Kemper  family,  the 
writer  is  permitted  to  publish,  in  part,  the  following  letter,  which 
furnishes  an  interesting  confirmation  of  some  statements  made  in 
this  sketch  : 

"Walnut  Hills,  April  27,  1827. 

"Rev.  and  Dear  Sir:  The  location  of  the  Western  Theo- 
logical Seminary  will  probably  occupy  much  of  the  time  of  the 
General  Assembly  at  the  ensuing  sessions.  But  why?  Will  not 
the  place  that  unites  the  most  central,  healthful,  yet  retired  and 
populous  neighborhood,  in  the  vicinity  of  a  very  populous  and 
growing  city  on  the  Ohio  River,  at  once  present  itself  to  the  As- 
sembly as  the  proper  place?  Such  a  place  is  Walnut  Hills,  near 
Cincinnati.  Here  we  will  give  for  the  above  purpose,  in  one  or 
more  lots,  twenty  acres  of  land,  affording  convenient  situations  for 
all  the  necessary  buildings.  ■'-'  *  And  further,  on  one  of  the  sites  we 
would  propose,  there  is  a  well  finished  academy,  v/ith  a  good  frame 
dwelling-house  by  it.  A  good  and  sufficient  title  will  be  made  to 
the  whole,  if  accepted.  We  state,  further,  that  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  subscriptions  would  be  as  liberal  in  favor  of  the  place 
or  places  here  proposed  as  in  any  part  of  the  western  country. 
When  the  subject  of  the  Seminary  is  brought  forward,  you  will 
please  to  lay  this  before  the  House  at  the  proper  time;  and,  as  you 
have  once  passed  over  the  ground,  I  think  you  will  be  able  to  make 
some  statements  satisfactory  to  the  Assembly,  I  am  confident, 
however,  that  what  is  right  on  the  whole  will  be  done. 
"With  respect  and  esteem, 

**I  am,  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, 
"Yours, 
"(Signed)  JAMES  KEMPER,  Sr. 

Rev.  Ezra  Styles  Ely,  D.D., 

"Philadelphia." 


64  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

attention  in  Cincinnati  and  the  vicinity  ;  or  that 
during  the  succeeding  year  there  should  have 
ripened  an  earnest  determination  to  create  such 
an  institution  at  this  point,  as  soon  as  favoring 
providences  should  seem  to  open  the  way. 

Such  a  providence  revealed  itself  in  the 
summer  of  1828,  in  the  proposal  of  the  brothers 
Lane,  merchants  then  doing  business  in  New 
Orleans,  to  contribute  $1,000  annually  for  four 
37'ears,  and  one-forth  of  their  annual  income 
thereafter,  as  a  pecuniary  basis  for  the  projected 
Seminary.  In  consequence  of  this  generous 
proposal,  an  association  was  formed  at  Cincin- 
nati, in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  under  the  name 
and  title  of  the  Ohio  Board  of  Education  ;  a 
charter  was  procured  shortly  afterward  ;  and 
steps  were  at  once  taken  to  obtain  a  suitable 
location,  and  to  organize  the  institution.  Early 
in  1829  Mr.  Elnathan  Kemper  made  a  proposi- 
tion in'  behalf  of  himself  and  others  to  donate  to 
the  Board  sixty  acres  of  land  from  the  north 
end  of  his  farm,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mont- 
gomery Road,  and  to  sell,  for  the  sum  of  .$4,000, 
forty  additional  acres  lying  south  of  the  do- 
nated tract.  This  proposal  was  gratefully  ac- 
cepted, though  the  purchase  was  subsequently 
declined  by  the  Board  ;  and  near  the  close  of 
that  year,  Mr.  Kemper  acting  for  himself,  and 
also  for  his  father,  Rev.  James  Kemper,  and 
two  brothers,  David  R.  and  Peter  H.  Kemper, 
formally  deeded  to  the    Seminary  the    tract    he 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  55 

had  proposed  to  donate.  The  forty  acres 
offered  for  sale,  with  ten  acres  additional, 
were  three  years  later  transferred  to  the  Insti- 
tution by  Mr.  Kemper  himself,  on  perpetual 
lease. 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  to  contemplate 
the  spirit  which  led  to  these  generous  gifts. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  brothers  Lane 
were  Baptists,  of  New  England  origin,  but 
Southern  by  residence,  it  seems  surprising  that 
they  should  have  been  inclined  to  establish,  in 
the  West,  such  an  institution,  under  such  aus- 
pices. What  could  have  been  the  motive  but  a 
profound  conviction  of  the  necessity  for  an  edu- 
cated ministry  throughout  this  destitute  portion 
of  the  country,  and  a  love  for  our  common 
Christianity  rising  above  all  considerations  of 
locality  or  of  sect?  The  letter  of  Mr.  Kemper, 
making  his  first  proposition,  contains  an  earnest 
prayer  in  which  the  other  donors  doubtless 
shared,  that  this  donation  might  be  improved  by 
the  Board  for  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom 
of  our  blessed  Lord  and  Savior  ;  and  that 
the  Board,  in  the  administration  of  this 
trust,  might  be  preserved  from  all  selfish- 
ness, passion  and  prejudice,  but  might  rather 
at  all  times  be  under  the  influence  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  Let  these  memorable 
words  never  be  forgotten!  And  through  all 
its  future,  may  this  beloved  Institution, 
while      faithful      to      its       Presbyterian      name, 


56  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

ever  be  true  to  the  broad,  catholic,  gener- 
ous. Christian  temper,  that  gave  it  exis- 
tence!* 

It  may  be  that  the  resolution  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  1825,  ordering  that  the  proposed 
Western  Seminary  should  be  shaped,  in  every 
practicable  feature,  upon  the  plan  of  the  Semi- 
nary at  Princeton,  indicates  one  decisive  reason 
for  its  location  at  the  sources  of  the  Ohio.  For 
it  is  obvious  that  the  idea  of  blending  literary 
with  theological  training,  had  from  the  first 
been  prominent  in  the  minds  of  those  who  en- 
deavored to  secure  its  location  in  this  more 
Western  field.  If  they  argued  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  young  men,  who  in  this  region 
would  devote  themselves  to  the  ministry,  were 
lacking  in  the  literary  qualifications  requisite  to 
the  successful  prosecution  of  a  purely  theologi- 
cal course,  such  as  was    arranged    at  Princeton 


•=-The  services  of  the  Kemper  family,  in  the  cause  of  liberal  and 
Christian  education,  during  the  ten  years  previous  to  1829,  are  de- 
serving of  special  remembrance  in  this  connection.  The  fact  is, 
that  in  substance,  though  not  in  form,  the  history  of  Lane  Semi- 
nary runs  back  to  the  year  of  1819,  when  its  seeds  were  first  planted 
by  them.  The  following  memorandum,  in  the  handwriting  of  Rev. 
James  Kemper,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  one  of  his  grandsons, 
establishes  this  fact: 

"As  early  as  the  year  1819,  Elnathan  Kemper  and  Peter  H. 
Kemper  devoted  eight  acres  of  land  on  Walnut  Hills,  at  the  earnest 
request  of  their  father,  for  the  support  of  the  Walnut  Hills  Aca- 
demy,  that  year  established  by  the  Rev.  James  Kemper,  Sen.,  on 
the  Manual  Labor  plan.  In  this  school  the  Latin  and  Greek  lan- 
guages were  taught,  with  the  ordinary  branches  of  an  English  edu- 
cation, until  the  close  of  the  year  1825.  when  the  health  of  Mr. 
Kemper  so  far  failed  that  he  was  compelled  to  suspend  the  school, 
though  it  was  flourishing  and  successful." 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  5*7 

— if  they  judged  that  a  Seminary  so  constituted 
would  fail  by  reason  of  this  lack  of  adjustment 
to  existing  needs,  and  that  the  urgent  necessi- 
ties of  the  churches  demanded  the  establishment 
of  another  institution  upon  a  more  comprehen- 
sive and  practical  plan,  any  inconclusiveness  in 
their  reasonings  may  well  be  pardoned,  in  view 
of  the  earnestness  of  their  convictions,  and  the 
nobility  of  their  aims.  They  believed  that  the 
institution  demanded  by  the  existing  necessities 
of  the  church,  must  be  substantially  collegiate 
as  well  as  theological,  and  must  even  em- 
brace an  academic  department,  where  those 
who  could  not  pursue  a  collegiate  course 
might  .  still  receive  a  suitable  preparatory 
training. 

Under  this  conviction  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees acted,  and  on  the  eighteenth  of  November, 
1829,  the  preparatory  school  was  opened.  This 
school  was  accessible  to  all,  whether  students 
for  the  ministry  or  otherwise,  who  desired  to 
avail  themselves  of  its  advantages,  and  was  con- 
ducted by  the  Rev.  George  C.  Beckwith,  who 
was  also  directed  to  give  such  instruction  in 
theology  as  might  be  demanded  prior  to  the 
complete  organization  of  that  department.  Tem- 
porary arrangements  were  made  for  the  accom- 
modation of  students  from  abroad,  and  plans 
were  at  once  devised  for  the  erection  of  a  build- 
ing adapted  to  meet  the  permanent  necessities 
of  the  institution.      Durino-  the   summer  and  au- 


58  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

tumn  of  1830,  this  building,  afterward  known  as 
the  Boarding  Hall,  was  completed  and  brought 
into  service.* 

The  literary  department  was  continued  in 
an  experimental  form,  and  under  great  embar- 
rassment arising  from  tlie  lack  of  funds  and 
other  causes,  until  the  autumn  of  1834.  Mr. 
Beckwith  withdrew  from  the  enterprise  in  the 
fall  of  1830,  and  his  place  was  filled  successive- 
ly by  a  number  of  other  professors,  assisted  by 
such  subordinate  teachers  as  the  school  re- 
quired, until  the  final  discontinuance.  The 
change  was  gradual,  but  the  result  was  inevita- 
ble. At  the  outset,  some  intelligent  friends  of 
the  institution,  such  as  the  venerable  Dr.  Bishop 
of  Miami  University,  had  advised  against  the 
attempt  to  unite  together  things  so  obviously 
distinct.  As  early  as  1833,  the  question  had 
been  discussed  in  the  Board,  whether  it  was  ex- 
pendient  to  incorporate  in  one  institution,  on  the 
same  premises,  a  theological  seminary  and  a 
college  or  large  literary  institution.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  Faculty  expressed  to  the  trus- 
tees their  joint  opinion  that  the  interest  of  the 
Seminary  required  the  maintenance  of  a  select 
or  limited  preparatory  department,  adapted  to 
meet  the  wants  of  candidates  for  the  ministry, 
not  yet    qualified    to    enter    on    the    theological 


*After  nearly  eight  and  thirty  years  of  use,  this  structure  was 
destroyed  by  fire,  April  i8,  1868, 


EARLY    HISTORY   OF    LANE.  59 

course.  But  it  was  soon  discovered  that  in  con- 
sequence of  the  increase  of  academic  and  col- 
legiate privileges  in  various  sections  of  the 
country,  even  such  cases  could  for  the  most 
part  be  suitably  provided  for  without  such  an 
arrangement  ;  and  meanwhile  the  Seminary 
proper  so  completely  exhausted  the  resources  of 
the  Board,  as  to  render  them  willing  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  disappearance  of  this  feature  from 
their  original   plan. 

Another  element  in  that  plan  was  subjected 
to  a  similar  experiment  and  met  with  a 
similar  fate.  The  founders  of  the  Semi- 
nary had  their  eye  on  a  class  of  young  men 
who  were  not  only  pious,  but  indigent — as  the 
original  record  relates — and  they  therefore  re- 
garded it  as  a  matter  of  prime  importance,  that 
those  who  desired  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of 
the  institution  should  have  the  opportunity  of 
supporting  themselves  while  students,  by  some 
form  of  manual  labor.  The  Lane  and  Kemper 
donations  were  both  granted  under  the  condi- 
tion that  such  opportunity  should  be  given; 
though  that  condition  was  afterward  so  modified 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Board,  as  to  leave  the 
matter  to  be  tested  by  further  experience. 
Manual  Labor  schools  were  just  then  specially 
popular  in  all  parts  of  the  country  ;  the  theory 
on  which  thev  were  founded  was  exceedingly 
beautiful,  and  nothing  but  time  and  experiment 
could  prove  whether  the   realization  would  cor- 


60  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    I.ANE. 

respond  with  the  grandeur  of  the  dream.  It  was 
to  introduce  this  feature,  that  the  original  farm 
was  given,  and  the  further  lands  were  leased  ; 
and  as  it  gradually  became  evident  that  agri- 
cultural labor  was  not  sufficiently  remunerative 
to  meet  the  necessity,  various  forms  of  mechan- 
ical employment  were  from  time  to  time  intro- 
duced. A  part  of  the  students  were  organized 
as  a  printing  association  ;  and  another  portion 
as  a  company  for  the  manufacture  of  furniture  ; 
and  regular  contracts  were  entered  into  by  the 
Board  with  firms  in  the  city,  for  the  purpose  of 
rendering  the  labor  of  such  associations  profit- 
able. Brooms  were  also  manufactured,  and 
students  who  were  already  experienced  as  me- 
chanics in  other  directions,  were  furnished  with 
facilities  for  the  exercise  of  their  skill.  Three 
hours  daily  were  devoted  to  such  forms  of  em- 
ployment ;  and  there  is  no  reason  for  doubting 
that  the  students  generally  conformed  to  the 
letter  of  the  enactment.  Sundry  resolutions  of 
the  Board  and  Faculty  seem  to  indicate  that  the 
danger  in  the  case  lay  rather  in  the  inclination 
to  expend  more  time  in  such  labor  than  was 
consistent  with  the  main  purpose  of  the  institu- 
tion. 

The  experiment  was  faithfully  prosecuted, 
but  with  unfavorable  results.  With  what  devo- 
tion the  trustees  clung  to  their  original  hope, 
their  records  bear  effectual  witness.  Their 
numerous  resolutions  concerning    stewards    and 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  61 

superintendents,  concerning  the  methods  of 
keeping  the  agricultural  and  mechanical  ac- 
counts, concerning  the  management  and  use  of 
the  farm,  concerning  the  purchase  of  tools  and 
machinery,  concerning  wages,  concerning  the 
clearing  up  of  forest  grounds  for  pasturage, 
concerning  the  planting  of  orchards,  concerning 
a  garden,  concerning  the  purchase  and  sale  of 
milch-cows,  and  wagons,  and  divers  other  such 
matters,  show  that  like  true  men  they  stuck  to 
their  convictions  until  it  became  too  evident  that 
the  students,  if  they  were  not  eating  their  own 
heads  off,  were  devouring  the  institution,  leaf 
and  stalk.  Probably  the  greater  part  of  the  in- 
terest and  attention  of  the  Board  was  for  sev- 
eral years  directed  to  this  feature  in  their  plan  ; 
yet  from  year  to  year  the  expenses  exceeded 
the  receipts,  and  experience  indicated  more  and 
more  unerringly  that  v^hat  was  originally  an 
obligation,  binding  upon  all,  should  be  changed 
into  an  opportunity  afforded  to  such  as  were  in 
need  of  it.  And  when  that  conclusion  was 
reached,  the  end  of  manual  labor,  as  a  distin- 
guishing feature  of  the  institution,  became  only 
a  question  of  time. 

If  the  attention  of  the  trustees  was  largely 
engrossed  by  this  experiment,  they  were  by  no 
means  indifferent  to  other  important  interests. 
In  the  spring  of  1832,  they  entered  upon  the 
erection  of  the  dormitory,  and  in  1836  the 
chapel  was   also   erected  ;    thus    completing    the 


62  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

arrangements  for  the  material  abode  of  the  in- 
stitution. Dwellings  for  professors  were  also 
provided  during  the  first  decade  ;  progress  was 
made  in  the  beautifying  of  the  grounds,  set 
apart  as  a  campus.  With  means  so  limited,  and 
with  other  demands  so  urgent,  it  is  an  occasion 
for  wonder,  not  that  so  much  remained  to  be 
done,  but  rather  that  so  much  was  accom- 
plished. 

Though  the  literary  department  was  opened 
in  the  fall  of  1829,  and  though  from  that  time 
there  were  some  persons  on  the  ground,  who 
were  candidates  for  the  ministry  and  studying 
theology  informally,  yet  the  theological  depart- 
ment did  not  get  into  operation  till  December, 
1832.  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  was  first  elected 
President,  and  Professor  of  Didactic  and  Pole- 
mic Theology,  October  22,  1830  ;  but  hindrances 
arose  in  the  way  of  his  acceptance,  and  the 
election  was  repeated,  January  23,  1832.  On 
the  9th  of  August  his  letter  of  acceptance  was 
received  ;  and  on  the  26th  of  December  he  was 
formally  inducted  into  office.  On  the  same  day 
Thomas  J.  Biggs,  D.  D.,  of  Frankford,  Penn- 
sylvania, who  had  been  elected  to  the  Profes- 
sorship of  Church  History  and  Church  Polity, 
January  17,  1831,  was  in  like  manner  inaugu- 
rated ;  and  the  work  of  theological  instruction 
at  once  began  in  earnest.  Calvin  E.  Stowe, 
D.  D.,  was  appointed  professor  of  Biblical  Lit- 
erature, August  9,   1832  ;  but  did  not  enter  upon 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  63 

the  duties  of  his  office  till  July  of  the  follovvitig 
year.  Baxter  Dickinson,  D.  D.,  of  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  was  added  to  the  Faculty  as  Pro- 
fessor of  Sacred  Rhetoric  and  Pastoral  Theo- 
logy, Oct.  28,  1835  ;  being  inducted  into  office 
on  the  9th  of  December  following.  Thus  the 
several  chairs  of  instruction  were  ably  and  hap- 
pily tilled,  and  the  efforts  of  the  trustees  in  this, 
as  in  other  directions,  seemed  to  be  crowned 
with  success.* 

i\nd  now  their  days  of  trial  began.  They 
had  succeeded  in  erecting  the  needful  edilices, 
and  in  securing  to  the  Seminary  a  suitable  and 
beautiful  place  of  abode.  They  had  succeeded 
in  obtaining  a  complete  Faculty,  and  one  of 
marked  ability  and  extensive  reputation.  They 
had  succeeded  in  procuring  a  partial  endowment 
for  the  several  professorships,  and  were  justified 
in  hoping  that  friends,  eastern  and  western, 
would  still  further  assist  them  in  placing  the  in- 
stitution on  a  secure  foundation.  With  how 
much  of  fidelity,  of  generosity,  of  wise  plan- 
ning, of  skillful  management,  of  earnest  prayer, 
these  partial  results  had  been  secured,  none  but 
those  who  read  the  record  of  their  meetings  can 
bear  tit  witness. 


••In  tlie  dairy  of  Rev.  James  Kemper  may  be  found  the  fol- 
lowing significant  entry: 

*^ March,  J  833.  All  is  well  that  ends  well.  After  long  labor 
and  much  expense,  I  have  a  Literary  and  Theological  Seminary  at 
my  door." 


64  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

But  at  this  point  the  shadows  of  financial 
convulsion  began  to  darken  the  American  sky. 
Remaining  debts  began  to  press  heavily  upon 
the  institution,  and  to  call  for  payment,  when 
payment  was  impossible  except  at  fearful  sacra- 
fice.  Tlie  resources  of  friends  were  taken 
away,  and  their  good  intentions  frustrated.  One 
entire  professorship  was  lost  at  a  stroke.  Pro- 
jects for  further  advance  were  instantly  arrested, 
and  the  preservation  of  what  had  been  secured 
became  more  and  more  uncertain.  How  they 
passed  through  the  crisis,  it  would  probably  be 
impossible  for  either  trustees  or  professors  to 
tell.  In  the  fall  of  1839,  two  of  the  latter  were 
constrained  to  resign  ;  and  in  the  following  au- 
tumn the  Faculty  was  reconstituted  by  a  triple 
division  of  the  work,  and  by  the  election,  as 
Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  etc.,  of  D.  Howe 
Allen,  D.  D.,  then  an  instructor  in  Marietta 
College. 

Other  shadows  rested  heavily  upon  the 
young  and  struggling  institution.  The  earlier 
signs  of  that  sad  conflict  which  led  to  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1837,  and 
gave  occasion  for  its  union  in  1869,  had  become 
apparent,  even  before  the  Seminary  entered 
upon  its  strictly  theological  work.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1831,  the  respected  Dr.  Wilson,  within  the 
walls  of  whose  church  the  institution  had  re- 
ceived its  birth,  and  who  as  the  President  of  the 
Board    of    Trustees,    had    probably    done    more 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  65 

than  any  one  else  to  foster  and  strengthen  it  in 
the  days  of  infancy,  resigned  his  seat  and  sepa- 
rated himself  wholly  from  the  enterprise. 
Others,  including  some  of  its  earliest  benefac- 
tors, were  led  to  follow  his  example  ;  and  thus, 
even  before  its  work  had  fairly  begun,  the 
Seminary  became  involved  in  that  darkest  of 
earthly  troubles — -the  trouble  that  springs  from 
alienated  friendships.  The  time  has  passed  for 
any  questioning  of  the  motives  of  those  who 
thus  turned  away  from  the  enterprise  they  had 
loved.  The  hour  has  come  when,  however 
deeply  we  may  regret  the  consequences  of  their 
course,  we  ought  fully  to  admit  the  sincerity 
of  their  convictions,  and  the  purity  of  their  acts. 
Let  us  honor  them  for  what  they  did  in  its  be- 
half ;  and  only  regret,  as  they  doubtless  re- 
gretted, the  stern  pressure  of  duty  that  con- 
strained them  to  cease  from  doing  more. 

The  succeeding  years  were  full  of  similar 
embarrassment.  The  suspicion  with  which  the 
teachings  of  the  venerable  Professor  in  Theol- 
ogy were  regarded  by  many,  insensibly  affected 
the  standing  of  the  whole  Institution,  and 
greatly  diminished  both  its  receipts  and  the 
number  of  its  students.  And  when  the  type  of 
doctrine  which  he  represented  came  into  public 
collision  with  other  types  of  Presbyterian  doc- 
trine widely  prevalent,  especially  in  this  region, 
and  when  the  denomination  for  whose  good  the 
Seminary  had    been    founded    was   openly   rent 


66  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

asunder,  the  effect  on  the  Institution  became 
still  more  disastrous.  The  anti-slavery  agita- 
tion, from  1834  onward,  added  largely  to  the 
embarrassment  occasioned  by  these  denomina- 
tional diversities.  Standing  as  it  did  in  that 
central  territory  where  the  extremes  of  popular 
sentiment  on  both  sides  met  in  fiercest  collision, 
and  refusin<7'  to  be  surrendered  to  the  control  of 
either  party,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  most 
zealous  advocates  both  of  freedom  and  of  slavery 
should  become  dissatisfied  with  its  position,  and 
should  withdraw  their  patronage  from  it.  These 
causes  combined  with  the  financial  difficulties 
and  other  embarrassments  already  noted,  both 
to  lessen  the  resources  and  diminish  the  num- 
bers in  attendance^  and  to  make  the. position  of 
both  professors  and  trustees  one  of  peculiar 
trial.  What  they  suffered  during  that  eventful 
period  is  known  only  to  Him  who  remembers 
the  prayers  and  counts  the  very  tears  of  all 
who  toil  in  any  sphere  for  Him  ! 

It  is  a  comforting  fact  that  difficulties  of 
this  class,  in  whatsoever  sphere  experienced, 
are  of  necessity  transient — the  sovereign  law  of 
gravitation  maintaining  its  sway,  and  ere  long 
compelling  the  turbulent  billows  to  subside  into 
calm.  From  1840  onward,  for  a  decade,  the 
Seminary  went  on  quietly,  doing  a  great  and 
precious  work.  Its  position  was  in  the  main 
secure.  Its  Faculty,  though  incomplete,  was 
able  and  efficient.     Its  librar}'-,  purchased  chiefly 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  67 

in  Europe  by  Prof.  Stowe,  was  far  superior  to 
any  other  theological  collection  west  of  the 
Alleghenies.  Its  classes  were  large  ;  nearly  or 
quite  equal  to  those  of  prominent  Eastern  insti- 
tutions. Its  graduates  were  found  in  general  to  be 
trained,  sound  and  earnest  men  ;  and  were 
greatly  welcomed  by  the  churches  in  the  Cen- 
tral West.  The  missionary  spirit  prevailed  in 
the  Institution  during  this  period,  and  many  of 
its  alumni  either  went  to  pagan  lands  or  conse- 
crated themselves  to  an  equally  arduous  work 
in  the  newer  portions  of  our  »wn  countr}^ 
Other  denominations  shared  in  its  privileges 
and  were  benefited  by  the  labors  of  its  o-radu- 
ates.  -As  the  onlj-  Seminary  of  the  New  School 
body  in  the  West,  the  Institution  thus  occupied 
a  useful  and  conspicuous  position.  Though 
still  suffering  under  the  burden  of  debt  and  but 
partially  equipped  in  several  directions,  it  yet 
was  gaining  for  itself  year  by  year  a  name  and 
a  place  in  the  land  such  as  none  of  its  friends 
need  blush  to  call  to  remembrance. 

The  decade  closed  with  the  resicrnation  of 
Dr.  Beecher,  and  his  withdrawal  from  all  active 
service  in  the  Seminary.  At  the  ripe  age  of 
seventy-five,  after  eighteen  years  of  such  labor 
as  few  men  could  endure,  the  brave  old  warrior 
retired  from  the  field  to  enjoy  for  a  little  season 
that  earthly  rest  which  twelve  years  later  was 
to  be  exchanged  for  the  repose  of  heaven.  We 
shall  do  well   to   celebrate  his  work  and  to  per- 


68  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

petuate  his  memory.  Tried  by  any  just  stand- 
ard, he  must  be  pronounced  a  most  remarkable 
man.  The  fame  of  his  eloquence  as  an  orator 
had  preceded  him  to  the  West  ;  but  it  was  here 
that  that  fame  received  its  grandest  indorse- 
ment. His  ability  as  a  theologian  had  been 
established  in  New  England,  and  especially  in 
conflict  with  the  Socinianism  of  its  chief  city  ; 
but  that  ability  was  never  fully  exhibited  until 
the  duties  of  his  western  position  brought  it 
into  clear  relief.  The  purity  of  his  character, 
the  stability  of  his  principles,  the  boundless 
generosity  of  his  nature,  had  been  known  to  all 
who  were  thrown  into  contact  with  him  during 
his  earlier  life  ;  but  these  virtues  and  graces 
bloomed  most  freely,  emitted  their  richest  fra- 
grance, after  his  transfer  to  this  more  virgin 
soil.  Here  his  greatness  came  to  its  consum- 
mate flower.  If  his  learning  was  less  extensive 
or  profound  than  that  of  many  men  in  similar 
positions,  few  ever  excelled  him  in  that  quick- 
ness of  insight  and  that  fecundity  of  genius 
which  sometimes  seem  to  render  learning  insig- 
nificant. If  the  range  of  his  vision  was  less 
broad — his  survey  of  the  great  field  of  Christian 
theology  less  complete  than  that  of  some  among 
his  compeers,  none  surpassed  him  in  the  warmth 
of  his  conceptions,  or  the  vigor  of  his  grasp  of 
such  truth  as  it  had  been  given  him  to  know. 
If  his  Calvinism  was  of  a  less  distinct,  positive, 
unreserved  type  as  to    all    that    is  contained  in 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  69 

the  element  of  divine  sovereignty,  it  was  be- 
cause he  possessed  so  eminently  that  vis  vivida 
vitae — that  buoyant,  keen,  controlling  conscious- 
ness of  freedom  and  of  consequent  responsi- 
bility on  the  part  of  man,  which  stands  forth  as 
the  perpetual  antithesis  to  such  conceptions  of 
the  Deity.  If  in  the  height  and  turmoil  of  the 
battle  he  struck  hard  blows  and  inflicted  serious 
wounds,  none  were  more  ready  than  he  to  atone 
for  every  error  and  to  embrace  those  who  had 
been  his  foes.  And  in  the  fullness  of  his  devo- 
tion to  the  work  to  which  God  had  here  called 
him — in  the  almost  youthful  ardor  with  which 
he  entered  into  every  scheme  for  the  advance- 
ment of  this  Institution — in  the  number  of 
his  sacrifices  for  it,  and  for  those  who  came 
here  to  obtain  its  culture — in  the  fiery  enthusi- 
asm, the  supreme  desire  to  know,  the  ardent 
consecration,  the  purpose  of  work,  which  he 
enkindled  in  the  breasts  of  his  pupils,  he  cer- 
tainly had  no  superior  among  the  theological 
teachers  of  his  age.  During  those  eighteen 
3''ears  his  influence  became  an  imperishable 
element  in  the  atmosphere  of  this  Institution, 
and  his  name  was  graven  inefTaceably  upon 
its  walls.  May  a  just  and  generous  apprecia- 
tion of  his  worth  here  abide  forever  ! 

It  is  remarkable  that  but  one  other  among 
the  instructors  in  the  Seminary  has,  during  the 
whole  period  of  its  existence,  been  removed  by 
death.     Rev.  Dr.  Biggs,  who  first  occupied  the 


70  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

Chair  of  Church  History  and  Church  Polity, 
and  whose  six  years  of  strict,  faithful,  generou^ 
service  are  still  gratefully  remembered  by  the 
older  friends  of  the  Institution,  departed  from 
life  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati  during  the  year 
1863.  In  the  circle  of  the  trustees  the  record 
of  mortality  is  much  more  extensive.  The  first 
President  of  the  Board,  the  venerated  Dr.  Wil- 
son, has  long  since  gone  to  that  world  where 
the  ransomed  are  seeing  eye  to  eye,  and  where 
those  who  differed  here  are  associated  together 
in  a  fellowship  never  more  to  be  broken.  And 
with  him,  and  those  two  earliest  teachers,  what 
a  group  of  their  associates  in  this  earthly  labor 
are  now  convened  in  that  better  life  !  Kemper 
and  Burnet  and  Groesbeck,  Boal  and  Tichenor 
and  Neff,  Brainard  and  Bishop  and  Mills  and 
Duffield,  Macy  and  Vail  and  Baker  and  Me- 
lendy,  and  others  who  served  the  Institution  in 
this  capacity,  have  been  gathered  there  to 
receive  the  reward  of  their  earthly  fidelity,  and 
to  join  together  without  one  discord  in  the  vast 
song  of  the  redeemed.  Is  it  an  undue  exercise 
of  faith  to  believe  that  they  may  be  with  us 
mingling  unseen  in  this  glad  anniversary  ;  or 
that  in  their  glorified  estate  they  may  be  rejoic- 
ing together  in  this  evidence  that  their  toil  and 
sacrifice  were  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord  ! 

Here  may  the  curtain  fitly  fall.  The  nearer 
Past  blends  imperceptibly  with  the  living  Pres- 
ent.   Its  personages  and  its  events  are  too  close 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF    LANE.  71 

and  too  replete  with  the  mobility  of  life  to  be 
contemplated  in  the  perspective  of  history.  The 
labors,  sacrifices,  devotion  of  Stowe  and  Dick- 
inson and  Condit  and  Day  and  Ballantine  are 
yet  to  be  told.  Neither  may  we  speak,  as 
future  history  will,  of  him  (Rev.  Dr.  Allen) 
whose  seven  and  twenty  years  of  service  form 
the  golden  chain  that  binds  this  earlier  Past 
with  the  living  Present,  and  whose  absence 
from  these  scenes,  under  the  strokes  of  an 
afflictive  Providence,  renders  the  joy  of  this 
commemorative  occasion  less  complete.  In- 
spired by  such  examples  and  likewise  admon- 
ished by  such  providences,  may  we  who  remain 
go  forward  into  the  Future  with  earnest  and 
resolute  hearts.  And  may  that  Future,  vital 
and  affluent  and  fruitful,  while  it  justifies  our 
hope,  bring  to  realization  the  brightest  dreams 
of  those  who,  forty  years  ago,  laid  in  the  name 
of  Christ  these  strong  foundations. 


III. 


Historical  Sketch  of  Lane, 


AN    IDDRESS    DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 
CENTENNIAL  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 


MAY  19,   1888. 


Protestantism  in  its  main  branches  has  dif- 
fered widely  from  Romanism,  not  only  in  its 
conception  of  the  minister  as  distinguished  from 
the  priest,  but  also  and  by  necessary  consequence 
in  the  scope  and  the  methods  of  its  training  for 
the  ministerial  office.  While  Romanism  secludes 
its  candidate  for  the  priesthood  within  some 
cloistered  retreat,  subjects  him  to  a  prescribed 
cultus,  drills  him  in  a  specified  theology,  trains 
him  in  rubric  and  ordinance,  and  makes  him  an 
expert  in  the  technics  of  clerical  administration, 
Protestantism  provides  for  its  ministry  a  broader 
culture,  leads  them  through  wider  fields  of  thought 
and  experience  and  research,  educates  them  into 
loftier  beliefs  and  a  more  comprehensive  doc- 
trine, trains  them  for  preaching  rather  than  for 
sacramental  service,  equips  them  with  completer 
panoply  whether  for  defensive  or  offensive  strug- 
gles, and  in  the  end  sends  them  forth,  not  as  the 
robed  and  stately  representatives  of  a  hierarchal 
church,  but  rather  as  living,  disciplined,  positive, 
sanctified  messengers  of  God  commissioned  chief- 
ly to  proclaim  his  Gospel  to  a  fallen  race. 

I  deem  it  one  of  the  glories  of  Presbyter- 
ianism  that  no  branch  of  Protestantism  has  ex- 
celled it  at  any  time,  either  in  its  conceptions  of 
the    ministerial  office,  or  in    its  requisitions   and 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF   LANE.  75 

provisions  for  the  completest  preparation  of  those 
who  should  fill  that  supreme  position  within  the 
church.  And  it  may  well  be  counted  among 
the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  our  Ameri- 
can Presbyterianism  especially,  that  from  the 
first  it  has  cherished  so  elevated  an  ideal  of  the 
Christian  minister,  and  even  under  the  stress  of 
comparative  poverty  has  so  generously  provided 
for  him,  particularly  in  its  theological  seminar- 
ies, the  apparatus  and  the  culture  requisite  to 
his  thorough  training  for  its  service.  It  was  no 
accident  that  the  first  and  the  second  Protestant 
theological  school  on  this  continent  were  found- 
ed by  Presbyterians  as  early  as  1794  in  Penn- 
sylvania, and  1804  in  New  York,  the  latter 
event  antedating  by  eight  years  the  founding  of 
our  parent  seminary  at  P;a*inceton.  Nor  was  it 
an  accident  that  within  a  single  decade  after 
Princeton  was  so  established  in  1812,  the  rapid 
growth  of  our  denomination  westward  along  the 
natural  lines  of  migration  from  the  seaboard  to 
the  wilderness  of  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  should 
have  given  rise  to  proposals  for  a  second  insti- 
tution of  like  character  and  structure  somewhere 
west  of  the  Alleghenies.  In  the  Minutes  for 
1825  it  is  recorded  that  the  General  Assembly 
''taking  into  consideration  the  numerous  and 
rapidl}^  increasing  population  of  that  part  of  the 
United  States  and  their  territories  situated  in 
the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  believ- 
ing that  the  interests  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 


7Q  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

imperiously  require  it,  and  that  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom  will  be  thereby  promoted,  Resolved 
that  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  establish  a  Theo- 
logical Seminary  in  the  West,  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  General  Assembly."  After  further 
action,  prescribing  minutely  the  constitution  and 
character  of  the  proposed  seminary,  a  commis- 
sion composed  of  five  persons  (of  which  com- 
misssion  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee, 
who  three  years  later  became  President,  was 
the  chairman)  was  appointed  to  consider  the 
specific  and  perplexing  question  of  location. 
There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  the  real 
center  of  this  original  movement  lay  rather  in 
Ohio  and  Kentucky  than  in  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, three  of  the  committee  of  six  by  which 
the  constitution  was  .drafted,  three  of  the  five 
members  of  the  commission  to  locate,  four  of  the 
seven  agents  appointed  to  collect  funds,  and  a 
majority  of  the  first  Board  of  Directors  being 
residents  within  the  former  regions.  The  first 
meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  also  was 
ordered  to  be  held  at  Chillicothe,  until  recently 
capital  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  and  of  the  four 
places  specially  advocated  as  the  seat  of  the 
contemplated  seminary,  two  were  in  Ohio  and  a 
third  as  far  west  as  Indiana,  which  had  become 
a  state  only  nine  years  before.  The  question  of 
place  soon  became  prominent  and  troublesome  ; 
the  commission  was  not  unanimous  in  its  judg- 
ment ;  divisions  of  opinion    and  of  feeling  arose 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH     OF    LANE.  't7 

among  the  advocates  of  the  more  western  local- 
ities, and  at  length  the  Board,  by  a  vote  of  eight 
to  five,  recommended  to  the  Assembly  of  1826 
the  selection  of  ''Allegheny  Town,  opposite  the 
city  of  Pittsburgh,"  mainly  on  the  ground  that 
th-e  other  localities  were  too  far  away  in  the 
younger  West,  It  was,  however,  determined  by 
the  Assembly,  after  considerable  debate,  that 
the  seminary  should  be  located  "either  in  Alleg- 
heny Town  in  the  vicinity  of  Pittsburgh,  or  at 
Walnut  Hills  in  the  vicinity  of  Cincinnati,  or  at 
Charlestown,  Indiana,  as  the  General  Assembly 
of  1827  should  decide."  The  latter  name  sug- 
gests at  once  that  local  movement  for  the  secur- 
ing of  an  adequate  ministry  for  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  which  resulted  a  few  years  later  in  the 
founding  first  at  Hanover  and  then  at  New  Al- 
bany of  what  has  since  become  the  affluent  and 
prosperous  Seminary  of  our  church  at  Chicago. 
But  at  that  time  there  was  only  one  small  Pres- 
bytery in  the  state  of  Indiana,  and  this  was 
associated  ecclesiastically  and  by  other  afhlia- 
tions  with  the  Synod  of  Kentucky — a  fact  which 
probably  explains  the  proposing  of  Charlestown 
rather  tlian  any  point  in  Ohio  or  Pennsylvania 
as  the  site  of  the  new  institution.  Chillicothe 
and  another  location  in  this  state,  as  well  as 
"Walnut  Hills,  near  Cincinnati,"  were  proposed 
as  suitable  locations  for  the  new  seminary.  Had 
the  friends  of  the  movement  in  Ohio  been  able 
to  agree    among  themselves  as  to  locality,  there 


t8  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

is  little  room  to  doubt  that  the  second  great  theo- 
logical institution  of  our  church  would  have  been 
planted  elsewhere  than  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Allegheny  and  the  Monongahela. 

But  the  General  Assembly  of  1827,  after  a 
strenuous  discussion,  decided  through  calling 
the  roll,  and  as  tradition  alleges  by  a  bare 
majority  of  one,  that  "Allegheny  Town  should 
be  the  site  of  the  Western  Theological  Semin- 
ary." That  this  decision  should  have  proved 
acceptable  to  the  advocates  of  ihese  other  local- 
ities, would  hardly  be  expected.  Cincinnati, 
being  the  mediate  and  central  point,  was  the 
only  one  in  which  there  could  finally  have  been 
general  acquiescence.  But  that  decision  in  fact, 
with  unexpected  fertility,  brought  into  existence 
three  theological  seminaries  at  once  ;  for  within 
two  years  the  foundations  of  a  second  institution 
had  been  laid  on  Walnut  Hills,  and  within  four 
years  a  third  had  been  organized  at  a  lower 
point  on  the  Ohio  River,  as  an  adjunct  of  Han- 
over College.  More  than  this  might  be  said, 
for  simultaneously  with  these  movements  in  the 
West  the  South  had  been  roused  by  the  action 
in  the  Assembly  to  similar  effort,  and  the 
Union  Seminary,  founded  in  Virginia  in  1824, 
and  recognized  officially  by  the  Assembly  in 
1826,  and  also  the  Columbia  Seminary,  organ- 
ized by  the  Synod  of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia 
in  1828,  were  the  practical  results.  Five  semi- 
naries thus  sprang  into  being  within  a  single  de- 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    LANE. 


70 


cade.      Everywhere    American    Presbyterian  ism 
was   apprehending  more  fully  than  ever  the  vital 
importance  of  an  educated  ministry  and  of  estab- 
lishing institutions  fitted  to  impart  such  education. 
Those    who     were    interested    in    founding 
such    an    institution    at    Walnut    Hills    were   not 
daunted  by  the  adverse  decision  of  the  Assem- 
bly.    A    Presbyterian     academy    had     been     in 
existence  at  this  point  since  1819,  and  this  eas- 
ily became    in    1828    the    nucleus  of    a  broader 
institution,   both    collegiate    and    theological    in 
design,  for  which  a  State   charter  was  procured 
early  in  1829,  and  a  financial  basis  laid  through 
the    Christian    munificence    of    the    members ''of 
the   Kemper  family,  and  a  gift  of  several   thou- 
sand dollars    by  two    brothers  bearing  the  name 
of    Lane,    merchants    in    Cincinnati,     who    were 
Baptists.      The    academic    department    went    at 
once  into  operation,  and  in   the   autumn  of  1830 
the   theological    department    was    introduced   by 
the  election  of  Lyman  Beecher,  then  of  Boston, 
as  Professor  of  Didactic  and  Polemic  Theology! 
This  appointment  was  at  first  declined,  although 
Dr.     Beecher    had     characteristically    said    that 
the    grandest  thought   that  had  ev^er  entered  his 
mind  was  the  thought  of  educating  in  the  West 
a  ministry  for  that  great  West  which  to  his  vis- 
ion  was   limited    by   the    Mississippi   River,    but 
to    ours    is     scarcely     bounded     by    the    Pacific 
Ocean.      In  1832  the  election  was  repeated  and 
at    length    accepted,    and   in    December  of    that 


80  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

year  the  Seminary  was  opened  with  Prof. 
Thomas  J.  Biggs  and  the  eminent  scholar  and 
teacher  Calvin  E.  Stowe,  who  came  early  in 
1833,  as  associate  instructors.  Two  years  later 
the  Faculty  was  completed  by  the  addition  of 
the  venerated  Baxter  Dickinson,  subsequently 
professor  in  Auburn  Seminary,  and  widely 
known  in  the  Church  as  the  author  of  the 
Auburn  Declaration^  an  historic  document,  the 
original  of  which  still  remains  as  a  precious 
relic  in  the  library  of  the  Institution. 

But  althoug-h  solid  foundations  had  thus 
been  laid,  a  Faculty  of  marked  ability  secured, 
and  a  large  number  of  students  brought  to- 
gether, the  endowment  was  wholly  inadequate 
at  the  best,  and  in  the  period  of  financial  de- 
pression that  followed  in  1837  much  of  this  was 
lost.  One  pledged  professorship  perished  entire 
through  the  business  failure  of  its  donor,  Arthur 
Tappan  of  New  York.  Differences  of  judg- 
ment as  to  policy  arose  early,  and  divided  coun- 
sels led  to  distraction  and  to  alienation.  That 
sad  conflict — theological,  political,  administra- 
tive— which  finally  culminated  in  the  disruption 
of  1837,  naturally  found  a  strategic  centre  here 
as  in  other  seminaries  of  the  Church.  As  the 
battle  progressed  and  waged  at  large,  it  became 
more  fierce,  more  personal,  more  destructive  at 
this  centre  also,  eventuating  finally  in  the  trial 
of  Dr.  Beecher  for  heresy  in  1835,  in  the  with- 
drawal of   some  who    had    been  friends,   in   the 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    LANE.  81 

diminished  attendance  of  students,  and  in  great 
sorrow  of  heart  to  many  who  deprecated  alike 
the  strife  and  its  results.  The  current  agitation 
touching  slavery  as  to  both  its  moral  quality 
and  its  political  status,  greatly  increased  these 
embarrassments,  and  other  difficulties  were  not 
wanting  to  obstruct  still  further  the  pathway  to 
that  peaceful  and  beneficent  progress  of  which 
the  founders  of  the  Institution  had  so  fondly 
dreamed.  Two  of  the  professors,  Dickinson 
and  Biggs,  were  constrained  in  1839  to  resign 
their  places  ;  and  though  the  Faculty  was 
reconstructed  by  the  addition  in  1840  of  the 
beloved  and  venerated  Allen,  who  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  served  the 
Seminary  with  singular  fidelity,  the  general 
outlook  still  gave  occasion  for  the  gravest  soli- 
citude. 

During  the  decade  from  1840  to  1850  the 
Seminary,  though  crippled,  still  went  on  doing 
quietly  a  large  and  valuable  work,  and  increas- 
ing somewhat  year  by  year  in  resources  and  in 
influence.  Its  classes,  attracted  largely  by  the 
fame  of  Dr.  Beecher,  nearly  equaled  those  of 
more  conspicuous  institutions  at  the  East  ;  its 
graduates  were  generallv  found  to  be  sound 
and  earnest  and  practical  men,  and  were  widely 
welcomed  by  the  churches.  A  fine  missionary 
temper  pervaded  the  Institution,  and  many 
went  forth  from  it  during  this  period  inspired 
with  a  Christ-like    desire    to   plant    the   Gospel 


82  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

along  the  frontier  lines  of  the  Republic  or  to 
proclaim  Christ  in  pagan  lands.  Albert  Bush- 
nell  and  five  others  in  Africa,  Wilson  and 
Adams  in  Syria,  Bonney  and  Cummings  in 
China,  Chandler  and  others  in  India,  Pogue 
and  Andrews  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Spauld- 
ing  and  Williamson  among  the  American  Indi- 
ans, and  others  like  them,  were  notable 
examples  of  a  missionary  zeal  which  throbbed 
through  the  Institution  in  that  early  day,  and 
which  gave  to  it  both  character  and  power. 
Meanwhile,  as  the  only  Seminary  of  the  New 
School  body  in  this  region,  a  wide  field  of  use- 
fulness gradually  opened  before  it  in  what  is 
now  the  Central  West,  and  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  churches  connected  with  that 
body  within  this  region  gratefully  received 
from  it  their  ministerial   supplies. 

In  1850  Dr.  Beecher,  bowing  under  the 
weight  of  seventy-five  years,  and  of  almost  un- 
precedented cares  and  labors,  resigned  his  chair 
and  returned  to  the  East  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life. 

^  *  --k  *  ^  He  * 

Time  would  fail  me  were  I  to  speak  as  they 
deserve  of  his  associates  in  the  first  Faculty — 
Biggs  and  Stowe  and  Dickinson  ;  or  of  those 
who  followed  him  during  the  dark  period  of  the 
Disruption,  Allen  and  Condit  and  Smith  and 
Evans  and  Day,  the  last  two  still  among  the  liv- 
ing ;  or  of  those  who  came  into  service  after  the 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    LANE.  83 

day  dawn  of  the  Union,  but  who  now  have  ceased 
from  their  earthly  labors,  Thomas  and  Humph- 
rey and  Eells.  Few  institutions  have  been  blessed 
with  a  more  valuable  Faculty,  either  in  the  class 
room  and  in  seminary  life  at  large, or  in  their  more 
general  relationship  to  the  church.  Seven  of 
the  professors,  including  the  one  who  still  sur- 
vives, have  been  Moderators  of  the  General  As- 
sembly, and  nearly  all  have  filled  conspicuous 
pastorates  or  occupied  other  important  posts  of 
service  in  the  church.  Time  would  fail  me  were 
I  to  refer  to  the  long  series  of  intelligent,  earn- 
est, faithful  trustees,  who  at  various  stages  have 
carried  the  Seminary  on  their  hearts  and  have 
rejoiced  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  its  service  ; 
especially  that  central  group  of  Christian  lay- 
men now  deceased,  from  Elnathan  Kemper  and 
Gabriel  Tichcnor  and  Nathaniel  Wright  down 
to  Edward  D.  Mansfield  and  Robert  Boal  and 
Anthony  H.  Hinkle  iind  Preserved  Smith,  to 
whose  thorough  loyalty  and  wise  counsels  and 
wonderful  generosity  the  institution  might  justly 
be  said  to  owe  its  very  life. 

The  period  from  the  resignation  of  Dr. 
Beecher  to  the  Union  of  1869,  was  one  of  dis- 
tinct usefulness,  though  shadowed  by  constant 
financial  difliculties,  and  marked  by  much  strug- 
gle and  sacrifice  on  the  part  alike  of  these  guard- 
ians of  the    institution    and  of  those  who    taucfht 

o 

within    it.      The    history  of  many   a    developing 
college    and    seminary  in    our  country,  like  the 


84  THIRTY    YEARS     IN    LANE. 

records  of  many  a  Christian  church,  will  exhibit 
some  such  period  as  this  in  which  work  is  done 
in  a  compressed  and  depressing  atmosphere,  and 
in  which  nothing  but  sanctified  grit,  holy  patience 
and  a  dauntless  fidelity  can  bear  the  sacred  trust 
in  hand  into  a  large  and  fruitful  place.  With 
the  Union,  such  opportunity  came  and  was  cor- 
dially welcomed.  While  the  institution  had  no 
traditions  to  blot  out,  or  principles  to  sell  for 
any  anticipated  success,  however  great,  it  was 
in  fact  the  first  of  our  seminaries  to  adjust  itself 
freely  to  the  changed  conditions  by  introducing 
a  new  element  into  its  Board  of  Trust  ;  b}^  bring- 
ing into  its  Faculty  those  who  should  ably  rep- 
resent other  modes  of  stating,  explaining  and 
defending  the  common  Calvinistic  system,  and 
by  welcoming  to  every  privilege  it  could  offer 
all  of  whatever  Presbyterian  antecedents  who 
desired  the  ministerial  culture  it  was  established 
to  give.  And  it  has  had  its  just  reward  in  an 
increase  of  loyal  friends  and  of  loyal  students 
also,  in  enlarging  resources  and  an  enlarged 
Faculty,  in  a  more  commanding  position  and 
reputation,  and — what  is  more  to  be  prized  than 
all  the  rest — in  a  steadily  expanding  sphere  of 
useful  and  fruitful  service  for  the  church  and  for 
the  world. 

As  the  first  class  was  not  graduated  till  1836, 
Lane  Seminary  may  be  said  to  have  but  little 
more  than  completed  the  first  half  century  in 
its  career  of   fruitfulness.      During    this    period 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH     OF    LANE.  85 

the  institution  has  sent  out  nearly  nine 
hundred  persons  who  have  received  the  whole 
or  much  of  their  preparation  for  the  ministry 
within  its  walls,  and  who  have  gone  forth,  the 
wide  world  over,  to  preach  the  Gospel,  to  found 
or  foster  churches,  to  build  up  colleges  and 
other  kindred  institutions,  and  to  help  forward 
with  intelligent  minds  and  resolute  hearts  every 
great  and  good  interest  of  humanity.  More  than 
fifty  of  that  number  have  gone  into  the  foreign 
field,  and  more  than  half  of  the  rest,  it  is  esti- 
mated, have  spent  their  lives  chiefly  in  that 
gigantic  task  which  so  often  aroused  the  elo- 
quence of  Lyman  Beecher,  the  task  of  implant- 
ing the  Church  of  God  firmly  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  the  regions  beyond.  Of  this  body 
of  alumni,  between  three  and  four  hundred  are 
now  on  the  roll  of  our  own  church  ;  a  consider- 
able number,  especially  of  the  earlier  classes, 
being  at  service  in  the  Congregational  and  other 
evangelical  denominations.  A  small  proportion 
of  these  alumni  are  located  at  difTerent  points 
from  Massachusetts  to  Florida  in  the  Atlantic 
division  of  the  Republic  ;  nearly  one  hundred, 
including  sixteen  on  the  Pacific  coast,  are  labor- 
ing in  the  vast  Western  division  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi ;  while  the  rest  are  at  service  within  the 
seven  states  comprised  in  the  great  Central  di- 
vision, stretching  from  Michigan  to  Tennessee 
— nearly  one  hundred  of  them  in  Ohio  alone. 
And  it  may  be  counted  one  of  the  special  glories 


86  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

of  the  institution  that  it  has  so  long  been,  and 
still  is,  so  important  a  factor  in  making  that 
magnificent  group  of  central  states,  spiritually, 
politically,  socially,  what  the  whole  country 
knows  tiiem  to  be.  A  noble,  goodly  company 
of  ministers  these  are — animated  specially  by 
that  missionary  spirit,  that  absorbing  love  for 
souls,  in  which  the  Seminary  had  its  origin — 
trained  rather  for  service  than  for  parade,  char- 
acteristically intelligent  and  ardent  in  their 
work,  faithful  as  they  were  taught  to  every  good 
and  great  interest,  friends  by  instinct  of  revivals 
and  rejoicing  to  labor  in  them,  and  everywhere 
eminently  loyal  as  a  body  to  the  Truth  as  it  is 
in  Christ. 

Permit  me  to  close  this  cursory  sketch  with 
a  single  remark  :  The  seminaries  of  our  church» 
born  of  an  intelligent  and  profound  conviction, 
admirably  distributed  geographically,  already 
largely  endowed  and  equipped  for  effective  serv- 
ice, the  elect  and  chief  source  of  supply  for  our 
churches  and  our  rapidly  expanding  missionary 
work,  and  manifestly  destined  as  their  needs 
are  met  to  bear  far  greater  fruitage  in  the  future, 
constitute  one  of  the  distinctive  excellencies,  one 
of  the  crowning  glories,  of  our  beloved  Church. 
They  are  eminently  worthy  of  respect  and  love 
and  continuous  aid,  and  also  of  habitual  and 
earnest  commendation  by  the  church  and 
around  the  family  altar  to  the  benediction  of 
Him  to    whose  cause    and  triumph    they  are  all 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    LANK.  87 

alike  consecrated.  And  in  that  goodly  fellow- 
ship, with  malice  toward  none,  with  charitable 
greeting  to  all,  seeking  no  advantage  for  itself 
at  the  expense  of  others,  in  affectionate  loyalty  to 
the  compact  of  1869,  the  Lane  Seminary  desires, 
as  the  one  theological  institution  of  our  Church 
in  the  Ohio  Valley,  to  hold  now  and  always 
some  fair,  some  worthy  place. 


IV. 


The  Theology  of  Lane. 


AN  OPENING  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  IN  LANE 
SEMINARY    CHAPEL. 


SEPTEMBER  14,   1882. 


— "  The  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God,  and  secrets  of  his  empire, 
Would  speak  but  Love:  With  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes, 
And  make  One  Thing  of  all  Theology." 


Brethren  of  the  Seminary  : 

What  is  the  place  which  the  element  of 
doctrine  holds  in  the  Presbyterian  conception 
of  the  Church?  What  is  the  generic  type  of 
Presbyterian  doctrine,  and  under  what  admis- 
sible forms  or  varieties  does  this  general  type 
exist?  How  far  does  American  differ,  as  to 
type  and  place  of  doctrine,  from  European 
Presbyterianism  ;  and  what  is  the  special  posi- 
tion of  our  own  Church  with  respect  both  to  the 
doctrine  which  it  confesses,  and  to  the  temper 
in  which  such  doctrine  should  be  accepted 
and  maintained?  What  is  our  rule  of  subscrip- 
tion to  doctrine,  and  what  the  proper  spirit  in 
which  all  questions  affecting  doctrine  should  be 
treated  by  us  as  true  Presbyterians?  What  is 
the  attitude  of  this  Seminary  toward  all  such 
issues  ;  and  what  should  be  the  doctrinal  dispos- 
ition of  those  who  are  assembled  here,  whether 
to  receive  or  to  impart  instruction?  To  such  as 
are  called  to  the  high  office  of  teaching  in  this 
hallowed  place,  and  to  those  who  gather  here  as 
students,  whether  at  the  beginning  or  some- 
where along  the  line  of  their  theologic  training, 
these  inquiries  will    seem    worthy   of    thoughtful 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  91 

attention — especially  as  we  stand  together  to- 
night on  the  threshold  of  another  year  of  fellow- 
ship and  of  labor.  God  give  us  grace  to  con- 
sider them  rightly! 

1.  Presbyterianism  throughout  the  world 
may  be  said  to  be  in  an  eminent  sense  doctri- 
nal ;  doctrinal,  because  it  is  Calvinistic.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  especially  since  the 
Reformation,  has  set  the  element  of  doctrine  re- 
latively aside,  or  has  consented  to  wide  diver- 
sities in  doctrine,  in  order  to  secure  through 
that  sacrifice  a  more  complete  and  effective 
scheme  of  organization  and  worship.  Luther- 
anism  has,  at  times,  diverged  widely  from  its 
primitive  system  of  doctrine  as  enunciated  by 
Martin  Luther — in  the  interest  on  one  side  of  a 
churchly  sacramentarianism,  or  on  the  other  of 
a  latitudinarianism  in  opinion,  which  begfins  by 
ignoring  doctrine,  and  ends,  too  often,  with  re- 
jecting it.  Episcopacy,  in  its  varieties,  has  fre- 
quently consented  to  similar  latitude  on  doctri- 
nal questions  for  the  sake  of  securing  position 
as  a  state  religion,  or  of  maintaining  ecclesias- 
tical unity  around  a  prescribed  liturgy.  Method- 
ism has  largely  preferred  to  lay  the  chief  stress 
in  its  organization,  not  on  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  or  the  Institutes  of  Watson,  or  even  on 
liturgical  forms  or  church  methods,  but  rather 
on  the  Christian  life,  and  on  the  realization  of 
the  gospel  in  human  experience  and  in  practi- 
cal religious   activities.      Baptist    bodies    every- 


92  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

where  find  their  main  bond  of  union  in  the  mode 
of  administering  a  Christian  sacrament  ;  and  for 
the  sake  of  unity  here  are  willing  to  admit  both 
Calvinistic  and  Arminian  teaching  alike,  within 
their  prescribed  communion.  Even  the  Congre- 
gational churches,  especially  of  America,  though 
strongly  impregnated  with  the  Augustinianism 
of  men  like  Edwards,  and  Dwight,  and  Em- 
mons, have  been  inclined  in  some  degree,  es- 
pecially of  late,  to  set  aside  doctrinal  tests,  and 
to  find  elsewhere  the  proper  basis  and  measure 
of  denominational  organization. 

But  Presbyterianism,  wherever  found,  has 
alwavs  been  eminently,  persistently,  and  in  the 
eyes  of  some,  offensively  doctrinal.  Thus,  at 
the  Reformation,  while  the  eye  of  the  Lutheran 
was  fixed  much  on  the  central  sacrament  of 
grace,  the  eye  of  the  Calvinist  was  drawn  in- 
tently toward  that  great  scheme  of  truth  of 
which  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  was 
the  central  principle.  And  while  in  process  of 
time  Germany  followed  mainly  this  primitive 
bias  toward  what  was  formal  and  churchly, 
Switzerland  and  Holland,  and,  finally,  Scotland 
and  all  Presbyterian  churches  speaking  the 
English  tongue,  yielded  rather  to  the  attractions 
of  that  grand  system  of  belief  which  the  genius 
of  John  Calvin  had  thrown  into  organic  form. 
The  history  of  European  Presbyterianism  shows 
singularl}^  how  strong  this  attraction  was,  and 
how  largely    the    element     of     doctrine    figured 


The  theology  of  lane.  93 

thus  in  the  developments  of  church  life.  Vari- 
eties in  the  presentation  of  the  common  truth 
indeed  occurred  frequently,  as  may  be  seen  in 
the  rise  of  the  Arminian  controversy  in  Hol- 
land, and  the  growth  of  the  influential  school  of 
Saumur  in  France  ;  but  however  wide  the  diver- 
sity, it  was  always  a  diversity,  not  about  polity 
or  liturgy  or  method,  but  about  the  dogmas 
embraced,  and  the  interpretation  of  the  accepted 
creed.  The  same  general  fact  is  equally  ap- 
parent in  our  own  time  ;  and,  perhaps,  the  re- 
mark might  be  ventured,  that  doctrine  really 
occupies  a  higher  place  among  Presbyterians 
now  than  it  held  in  the  days  of  our  fathers. 
Both  the  conflicts  of  divergent  schools  within 
the  common  domain,  and  the  battles  which 
Presbyterianism  has  v^aged  in  this  century  both 
with  other  types  of  Protestantism  and  with 
Romanism  and  unbelief,  have  probably  intensi- 
fied this  devotion  to  doctrine,  and  exalted  such 
doctrine  into  even  greater  prominence  and  con- 
trol. At  least,  it  is  no  less  true  now  than  for- 
merly that,  among  the  various  branches  of  nom- 
inal Christianity,  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  all 
its  varieties  is  eminently  the  Church  of  the  Doc- 
trines. 

The  secret  of  this  lies  partly  in  other 
causes,  but  chiefly  in  the  nature  of  Calvinism 
viewed  as  a  doctrinal  system.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  no  scheme  of  sacred  dogma,  ever  built  up 
within  the  Christian  Church,  has  such  power  to 


94  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

hold  Strongly  and  permanently  those  who  once 
embrace  it.  Under  various  names,  it  has  exhib- 
ited this  rare  power  from. the  days  of  Augustine 
until  now,  even  within  the  Roman,  and  still 
more  within  the  Protestant  fold.  Starting  with 
the  fundamental  conception  of  God  in  his  per- 
sonality and  character,  and  his  purposes  and 
relations  to  his  creatures,  it  has  erected 
on  that  foundation  a  scheme  of  the  universe, 
of  man,  and  of  salvation,  which  has  withstood 
the  criticism  of  fourteen  centuries,  and 
which  still  maintains  a  conspicuous,  if  not 
a  supreme,  place  among  the  types  of  faith  cur- 
rent in  Christendom.  It  has  been  a  strictly 
logical  system — logical  sometimes  even  to  the 
undue  bending  of  the  flowing  language  of 
Scripture  to  lit  the  forms  of  the  syllogism  or  the 
demands  of  exact,  deductive  demonstration.  It 
has  had  in  it  a  large,  sometimes  an  excessive, 
philosophical  element — in  some  cases  exalting 
this  to  an  equality  with  Revelation  itself,  and 
requiring  submission  to  it  as  rigidly  as  it  de- 
manded acceptance  of  the  dogma  of  sin  or  of 
grace.  It  has  at  times  been  carried  to  the  ut- 
most extremes,  and  its  most  refined  and  remote 
inferences  have  been  set  forth  as  equally  impe- 
rative with  its  most  immediate  biblical  concep- 
tions. It  has  often  been  dogmatic,  imperious,  dis- 
dainful of  opposing  systems — ever  ready  to 
make  battle  with  every  varying  scheme,  even 
of  evangelical  belief.  These  are  among  the  lia- 
bilities or  frailties  of  the   system  ;  but  are  they 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EANE.  95 

not  themselves  a  mute  testimony    to  ^  the    vigor, 
the  commanding  force,  of    the   system    that  be- 
trays them?     That  system   appeals   immediately 
to  the   intellect— roots   itself  inextricably  in    the 
brain.      It  proposes  both  to  commend  Christian- 
ity   conclusively    to    the    reason,    and    to    bring 
every  rational  thought  into  intelligent  captivity 
to  the  truth  in  Christ.      There  is  no   problem   in 
the  realm  either  of  nature  or  of  grace,  of  which 
it  does  not  attempt  a  solution  ;  it    aims    to    take 
in  within  its  wide  compass  every  question  which 
the  soul  raises,  and  which  the  Bible  professes  to 
answer.      Complex  in  detail,  strict  in   structure, 
and  thus  high    and    comprehensive    in    its    pur- 
pose, Calvinism  has  always  commanded   the   in- 
terest even  of  its  enemies,  and  has  held  intellec- 
tually those  who    have    once    embraced   it,   as   a 
strong  anchor  holds  a  ship  amid  the   storm'.      Its 
grasp  of  the   conscience  is   equally  firm   and   in- 
exorable ;  the  moral  sense  responds    to    it    deci- 
sively,   if    at    all;    and    its    spiritual    bonds    are 
strong    enough    to    hold    and    regulate   the  most 
vigorous  life.      If  it  sometimes   seems   cold   and 
passionless,  failing  to  reach  the  warmer    sensi- 
bilities   as    other    systems    have  done,  still  it  is 
not  in  Itself  a  feelingless  form  of    faith.     It    has 
entered    potentially    into    multitudes  of    human 
hearts,' and  has  caused  them  to  respond  in  notes 
as    sweet    and     deep    as    those    of    angels     are. 
Above   all,  it  has    entered    most  vitally  into   the 
characters  of  those  who  have  received  it,  elevat- 
ing their  purposes  while  it  enlarged  their  con- 


96  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

ceptions,  strengthening  their  manhood  ixs  well 
as  their  reason,  and  so  certifying  itself  in  much 
of  the  best  Christian  experience  and  activity 
historically  recorded.  Though  it  has  been 
marked  sometimes  by  positiveness,  by  narrow- 
ness or  coldness  of  feeling,  by  tendencies 
toward  dogmatic  formalism,  yet  in  the  main 
Protestantism  has  thus  far  revealed  no  form  of 
faith  which  has  dene  more  to  make  men  ac- 
quainted with  the  truth,  or  to  carry  the  gospel 
round  the  world.  Such,  in  a  word,  is  the  doc- 
trinal system  which  bears  the  current  name  of 
Calvin  ;  and  such  is  the  secret  of  the  fact  that 
Presbyterianism  has  been  so  largely  and  strong- 
ly doctrinal  from  the  days  of  the  Reformation 
until  now. 

11.  Presbyterian  Calvinism  has  always 
existed,  and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  still 
exists,  under  a  law  of  progressive  variety  or  of 
diversified  progress  ;  exhibiting  itself  historical- 
ly, in  other  words,  in  constantly  varying  forms 
and  proportions,  and  so  moving  on  from  age  to 
age  toward  greater  completeness,  and  therefore 
toward  increasing  power.  To  suppose  that  a 
system  of  truth,  having  in  it  so  many  elements, 
and  holding  these  in  an  organic  unity  so  ela- 
borate, should  have  sprung  forth  at  once  as  a 
consummate  flower  into  its  final  and  perfected 
shape — a  system  from  which  nothing  could  ever 
be  eliminated,  and  to  which  the  study  of  future 
times  could  add  nothing  -is  to  fancy  what  never 
has    existed,   and  what,  from    the    nature  of  the 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  97 

case,  never  can  exist.  Calvinism  was  a  thou- 
sand years  older  than  Calvin  ;  it  had  its  real 
genesis  in  the  exigencies  of  that  ancient  Pela- 
gian conflict  which  rent  the  Cliristian  Church 
during  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  What 
Calvin  did  was  to  revive  and  recast,  to  define 
and  expand,  and  t©  formulate  afresh  what  Aug- 
ustine had  already  taught.  Yet  John  Calvin, 
dogmatic  and  severe  toward  opponents  as  he 
often  was,  never  ventured  to  claim  that  his  ela- 
borate system  had  been  brought  by  him  to  its 
final  perfection.  He  was  never  narrow  enough 
to  suppose  that  other  men,  in  later  ages,  would 
never  see  the  truth  of  God  more  clearly  than  he 
saw  it,  or  state  that  truth  in  terms  more  ade- 
quate or  more  in  harmony  with  that  divine 
Word,  wliich  he  always  recognized  as  the  ulti- 
mate test  and  measure  of  all  systems  devised  by 
man.  And,  in  fact,  Calvinism,  even  during  the 
first  century  of  its  recognized  existence  as  a 
system,  became  not  one  but  many — one  in  its 
essential  elements,  but  many  as  the  churches 
and  the  theoloofians,  in  the  manner  in  which 
these  elements  were  combined,  and  in  the  spirit 
with  which  they  were  received  and  applied  in 
the  religious  life.  Even  Swiss  Calvinism  soon 
varied  from  Calvin  ;  the  general  system,  as  pre- 
sented by  the  Turretins  and  others,  was  in 
many  aspects  unlike  that  formulated  in  the  im- 
mortal Institutes.  As  received  in  the  Palati- 
nate, and  incorporated  into  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism,    that    system    underwent    other    and 


98  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

Still  more  decisive  variations.  The  hard,  ex- 
treme Calvinism  of  the  Dutch  Church,  which 
finally  drove  thoughtful  men  like  Arminius  and 
Grotius  into  open  revolt,  and  led  on  to  the 
formulation  of  Arminianism  as  an  antagonistic 
scheme,  was  a  natural,  yet  a  special,  outgrowth 
of  that  extreme  logical  quality  and  that  rigid 
type  of  philosophic  rather  than  biblical  state- 
ment, introduced  into  the  system  by  the  Hol- 
landish  theologians  of  the  preceding  century. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Covenants,  first  fully  form- 
ulated and  set  in  place  in  the  system  by  the 
hand  of  Cocceius,  again  modified  and  in  some 
directions  largely  improved  the  general  scheme, 
as  it  came  from  the  brain  of  Calvin.  On  the 
other  side,  we  see  in  the  French  School  of 
Saumur,  with  its  peculiarities  in  teaching  and 
soirit,  another  influence  modifying  and  also 
meliorating  the  severities  of  the  primitive  sys- 
tem. So,  in  the  British  Isles,  Knox  and  Mel- 
ville were  not  able  to  hold  Calvinistic  thought 
always  in  one  changeless  mood  ;  varieties  grad- 
ually appeared,  first  in  individual  teaching, 
then  in  the  belief  and  position  of  churches,  un- 
til Presbyterianism  in  Scotland,  Ireland,  Wales, 
England,  became  as  diverse  as  the  billows, 
though  one  as  the  sea.*       The  generic  type  has 


^It  is  no  secret  to  those  who  have  studied  the  Minutes  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly,  as  published  by  Prof.  Mitchell,  or  examined 
the  writings  of  the  leading  divines  in  that  venerable  body,  or  con- 
sidered the  phases  of  theology  current  in  Europe  in  the  middle  ol 
the   seventeenth  century,  that   the   Confession   and   Catechisms    of 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  99 

everywhere  been  strongly  held  ;  but  the  ele- 
ments have  continually  been  shifting  and  pre- 
senting- themselves  in  new  forms  of  combina- 
tion,  and  in  the  main  with  higher  aspiration. 
x\nd  he  would  be  wide  of  the  mark,  who,  under 
any  fancied  stress  of  loyalty  to  historic  Calvin- 
ism, should  affirm  that  no  improvement  had 
ever  crossed  the  channel  since  the  days  of 
Knox  ;  or  that  British  Calvinism,  stern  and  fixed 
and  rocky  though  it  often  seems,  is  to-day  pre- 
cisely what  it  was  in  that  earlier  age! 


Westminster  were  not  the  expression  of  one  unvarying,  unanimous 
form  of  theological  thought — a  type  of  Calvinism  in  which  all  were 
perfectly  agreed,  as  to  both  substance  and  expression  ;  but  rather 
were  the  final  outcome  of  strenuous  and  prolonged  debates,  assum- 
ing at  last  the  form  of  a  mediatory  compromise  between  recognized 
extremes.  The  cardinal  doctrine  of  decrees,  fundamental  in  the 
system  enunciated  by  the  Assembly,  itself  illustrates  alike  the  exist- 
ing diversities  in  the  body,  an.l  the  final  agreement  on  a  definition 
of  the  truth,  in  which  all  could  for  substance  harmonize.  So,  in  re- 
spect to  the  freedom  of  the  will,  and  the  position  and  responsibility 
of  the  sinner  with  regard  to  offered  grace,  there  are  clear  evidences 
of  a  conscious  compromise  between  men  who  still  realized  their  wide 
variety  on  secondary  features  or  phases  of  the  generic  truth.  Many 
such  evidences  may  be  found  in  other  directions  ]>y  anyone  vvhocare- 
fidly  examines  our  symbols  in  the  light  of  contemporaneous  records. 
And  is  it  not  one  of  the  glories  of  that  memorable  Council  that  its 
members,  however  widely  they  differed  in  particulars,  were  still 
able  to  discern  the  broad,  underlying  Calvinism  which  led  them  to- 
gether, and  made  them  essentially  one?  They  saw  and  frankly 
stated  their  differences;  but  their  common  desire  to  frame  a  creed 
in  which  the  Protestantism  of  the  British  Isles  could  be  united  and 
unified,  made  them  willing  to  merge  all  differences  in  the  grander 
unity  of  faith  and  church  to  which  they  all  aspired.  Worthy  ex- 
ample for  their  descendants  of  liter  times — for  us,  who  inherit  their 
composite  creed,  and  who  should  inherit  also  their  catholic  spirit! 
The  more  we  know  of  the  men  of  Westminster,  and  of  their  noble 
work,  the  less  shall  we  fall  apart  in  the  presence  of  slight  diversi- 
ties—the more  clearly  and  heartily  shall  we  rest  in  the  conviction 
that  such  diversities  are  of  "no  moment  when  compared  with  our 
common  heritage  in  that  magnificent  set  of  symbols  which  they  gave 
to  us  and  the  world.  See  Mitchell:  Introduction  to  Minutes  of  the 
Westminster  Assembly. 


100  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

The  conditions  of  such  variation  and  such 
advance  lie  partly  in  the  historic  relations  which 
this  remarkable  system  has  been  called  to  sus- 
tain, and  in  the  external  changes  through  which 
it  has  passed.  Had  Calvinism  been  simpler  and 
more  superficial,  it  might  have  retained  its  ori- 
ginal type  more  exactly.  Had  its  life  been 
shorter,  or  its  distribution  less  extensive,  or  its 
points  of  contact  with  human  philosophy  or  hu- 
man experience  been  fewer,  it  might  have  lived 
on  through  its  brief  day,  unaltered  and  unim- 
proved. But  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that 
three  centuries  have  passed  since  Calvin  died, 
and  fourteen  since  Augustine  was  the  light  and 
leader  of  the  African  Church.  We  are  to  re- 
member that  their  scheme  of  doctrine  has  ven- 
tured on  the  experiment  of  extensive  travel  from 
its  original  homes  in  Africa  and  among  the 
Alps  ;  that  it  has  spread  itself  over  the  whole  of 
Northern  Europe,  from  Geneva  to  the  Arctic 
Seas,  has  been  diffused  throughout  the  British 
Isles,  has  crossed  oceans  and  visited  many  peo- 
ples in  this  continent  and  in  others,  widely  un- 
like in  thought  and  nature  the  African  peasants 
or  the  Swiss  mountaineers  who  first  swore  alle- 
giance to  it.  We  are  not  to  forget  that  modern 
life  has  been  essentially  changed  during  the 
three  momentous  centuries  since  Calvin  wrote — 
that  new  philosophies  have  come  in,  and  new 
usages  and  laws  and  nationalities  have  sprung 
into    being,    and    new    experiences     have     been 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  101 

awakened,  such  as  the  Europe  of  the  Reforma- 
tion could  never  have  foretold.  Even  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  though  the  same,  is  yet  widely 
another  ;  and  the  Protestantism  of  to-day  is  no 
longer  a  simple  protest,  but  a  positive,  complex 
growth  of  belief,  polity,  worship,  experience,  as 
many-sided  as  modern  life  is,  and  more  urgent 
than  its  prototype  in  its  demands  on  Christian 
theology  of  whatever  sort.  Now,  to  fancy  that 
amid  so  much  of  change  and  variation — amid 
such  radical  shiftings  and  improvements  in  al 
other  directions,  a  system  of  belief  such  as  Cal- 
vinism could  have  remained  in  one  form,  un- 
modified and  unimproved  at  any  point,  from 
century  to  century,  is  to  fancy  that  system  to 
be  no  less  inspired  and  divine  than  the  heavenly 
Word  from  which  it  sprang.  In  such  circum- 
stances and  transitions,  variety  and  improvement 
were  inevitable. 

The  conditions  of  such  variation  and  ad- 
vance also  lie  largely  in  the  nature  of  Calvinism 
itself.  Glance  again,  for  a  moment,  at  this  re- 
markable system,  whose  real  worth  and  force 
are  the  rather  proved  than  called  in  question  by 
the  transmutations  through  v^hich  it  has  passed. 
Observe  again  how  complex  it  is,  and  what  op- 
portunity it  gives  for  a  hundred  different  com- 
binations of  the  diversified  elements  that  com- 
pose it.  Observe  how  broad  it  is  in  its  range — how 
comprehensive  it  aims  to  be  in  its  grouping  of  all 
that  is  contained  in  the  divine  Word  :  and  conse- 


102  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

quently  how  easy  it  becomes  for  men  to  omit  this 
or  unduly  exalt  that  feature — to  press  one  side  of 
the  scheme  into  the  shadow  in  order  to  bring  an- 
other into  clearer  light.  Observe  also  how  in- 
quisitive and  penetrating  this  system  is  —  what 
problems  it  grapples  with,  and  what  profound 
responses  it  makes  ;  and  how  much  room,  con- 
sequently, it  affords  for  variety  in  speculation 
and  teaching.  Observe  how  much  philosophy — 
sometimes  sensuous  or  mechanical,  sometimes 
ideal  and  even  rationalistic — has  had  to  do,  not 
merely  with  the  language  employed,  but  even 
with  the  real  elements,  the  actual  construction 
of  the  system.  Observe  in  the  same  connection 
the  broader  necessity  whicii  even  divine  truth 
is  under,  to  express  itself  always  in  words  and 
tones  suited  to  the  condition  of  those  whom  it 
seeks  to  bless  ;  note  the  modifications  in  lan- 
guage, expression,  structure,  which  each  revolv- 
ing century  in  Christian  experience  reveals,  and 
which  each  nation,  each  latitude,  exhibits  in  its 
appropriation  of  the  gospel  itself  ;  and  see  how 
extensively  all  this  must  affect  systems  of  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  types  of  Christian  living.  It  is, 
of  course,  never  to  be  forgotten  that  the  truth  of 
God  in  his  Word  remains  the  same  forever  ;  and 
that  in  this  sense  theology,  as  the  structural  ex- 
pression of  that  truth,  is — as  Macaulay  held — a 
finished  science.*      But  one  of  the  most  striking 


^The  position  of  Macaulay,  as  stated  in  his  essay  on    Rankt;\^ 
History  of  the  Popes^  includes   natural  as  well  as  revealed  theology. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  103 

evidences  of  the  divinity  ©f  Scripture  lies  in 
the  fact  that  its  circumference  steadily  widens 
as  the  thoughts  of  men  expand,  and  that  a  deeper 
depth  reveals  itself  to  each  new  age  of  believing 
investigation.  The  Bible  is  larger,  and  will  al- 
ways be  larger,  than  humanity.  The  Christian 
Church,  especially,  is  learning  more  and  more 
of  the  light,  sweetness,  grace,  which  are  con- 
tained in  this  Book  ;  and  such  advancing  knowl- 
edge is  steadily  recording  itself  in  both  her  ex- 
perience and  her  teaching.  In  this  sense  the 
Bible  is  a  constantly  unfolding  revelation  —  ex- 
hibiting itself  in  a  species  of  evolution,  as  grand 
as  that  by  which  the  oak  emerges  from  the 
acorn,  and  passes  upward  to  its  predestined  per- 


Hc  claims  that  natural  theology  is  not  a  progiessive  science,  on  the 
ground  that  the  arguments  employed  by  Paley  to  prove  the  divine 
existence  were  employed  as  well  by  Socrates  that  we,  in  our  day, 
''have  precisely  the  same  evidences  of  design  in  the  structure  of  the 
universe  which  the  early  Greeks  had;"  that  the  proofs  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  derived  from  nature,  have  not  increased  in 
any  degree  with  the  advance  of  knowledge  and  civilization.  In  like 
manner,  he  further  claims  that  revealed  theology  is  "not  of  the  na- 
ture of  a  progressive  science,"  because  the  materials  used  in  its 
construction  are  in  all  ages  the  same.  All  divine  truth  is  contained 
in  certain  books  ;  all  the  discoveries  of  all  the  philosophers  in  the 
world  cannot  add  to  these  books  a  single  verse.  "  A  Christian  of 
the  fifth  century  with  a  Bible,  is  on  a  par  with  a  Christian  of  the 
nineteeth  century  with  a  Bible,  candor  and  natural  acuteness  being, 
of  course,  supposed  equal."  Hence  he  infers  that  old  errors  in 
theology  are  just  as  likely  to  be  repeated  now  as  in  any  former  age, 
and  that  the  progressive  enlightenment  of  modern  times  is  not  ''fa- 
vorable to  Protestantism,  and  unfavorable  to  Catholicism,"  as  is  be- 
lieved by  Protestants. 

The  fallacy  of  Macaulay  is  the  same  in  both  directions.  The 
cosmological  and  teleological  arguments  indeed  remain  the  same, 
as  arguments,  but  the  material  employed  in  the  reasoning  is  con- 
stantly accumulating,  and  the  cogency  of  the  reasoning  is  conse- 
quently increasing,  from  age  to  age.  The  forty  years  which  have 
passed  since  this  famous  essay  was  written,  have  added  immensely 


104  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

fection  in  the  skies.  And  if  this  be  true  of 
Scripture,  still  more  must  it  be  true  that  every 
system  of  theology,  deriving  its  materials  from 
that  unfolding  volume,  exists  under  a  primal  law 
of  evolution  and  advance.  Whatever  is  narrow 
in  any  such  system  must  be  broadened  ;  what- 
ever has  been  omitted  must  be  brought  in  and 
set  in  its  legitimate  place  and  relations  ;  what- 
ever is  based  on  erroneous  interpretations  must 
be  adjusted  anew  to  the  divine  Original  ;  what- 
ever is  philosophic  statement  merely  must  be 
modified  if  deficient — thrown  aside  if  false  ;  and 
whatever  has  been  introduced  to  meet  the  pecu- 
liarities of  any  given  race  or  age,  must  be  so 
stated  as  to  meet  in  like  manner  the  spiritual 
needs  of  other  ages,  or  other  races.  This  is  true 
of  all  human  theologies  ;  and  in  some  respects  it 
is  eminently  true  of  Calvinism.  I  have  no  idea 
that  much,   if  anything,   that  now  appears  to  be 


to  both  material  and  proof  in  this  department.  So,  while  the  car- 
dinal  teachings  of  Scripture  cannot  be  altered  or  improved  by  hu- 
man ingenuity,  the  volume  of  teaching  in  the  Bible  is  found  to  be 
steadily  expanding,  as  the  human  intelligence  increases  in  capacity; 
and  both  the  forms  and  the  cogency  of  revealed  doctrine  are  con- 
stantly developing  through  progressive  inquiry  and  vi^idening 
knowledge  of  the  Word  iiself.  Christian  theology  is  thus  not  a 
stationary  and  finished,  but  a  steadily  advancing  science,  ever  set- 
ting the  truth  of  God  in  fresh  lights  and  rclitions,  discovering  new 
harmonies  in  that  truth,  and  thus  building  up,  century  by  century, 
a  temple  of  sacred  doctrine,  whose  full  completion  it  may  not  be 
given  to  mortal  man  to  behold.  Those  who  hold  the  opposite  view 
must  prepare  themselves  not  only  to  accept  the  painful  inference 
which  Macaulay  draws,  but  also  to  submit  to  many  other  conse- 
quences, far  more  painful.  To  crystallize  Christian  doctrine  into 
one  final  and  irreversible  shape,  and  then  declare  the  process  of 
evolution  finished  forever,  would  be  to  doom  that  doctrine,  and 
the  Christian  Church  with  it.  to  a  death  without  a  resurrection. 


"THfe   THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  105 

essential  to  that  great  scheme  will  ever  be  set 
aside  ;  nor  have  I  the  slightest  apprehension  that 
any  modifications  will  occur,  that  will  change 
Calvinism  into  Arminianism,  or  into  any  other 
antithetic  scheme  of  evangelical  belief.  But  I 
am  sure  that,  as  thj_s  S3^stem  Yirs  alvvays  exi_sted, 
und_er  a  variety  of  forjns,  and  under  a  clear  law 
of  progress,  so  it  will  continue  to  exist — proving 
all  the  more  its  essential  truthfulness  by  its  de- 
monstrated capacity  to  pass  on  from  good  to  bet- 
ter, from  glory  to  glory,   even  unto  the  end. 

III.  In  American  Presbyterianism  we  ma}^ 
observe,  in  some  especial  forms,  the  presence 
in  high  degree  of  both  of  the  general  facts  al- 
ready described.  Considering  first  the  doctrinal 
element  generally  in  connection  with  denomina- 
tional life,  we  see  at  once  that  among  the  various 
divisions  of  nominal  (^Christianity  on  this  conti- 
nent, the  Presbyterian  is  especially  the  one 
which  exalts  and  emphasizes  doctrine.  Catholi- 
cism, Lutheranism,  Episcopacy,  Methodism,  re- 
tain here  largely  the  peculiarities  which  have 
marked  them  in  the  Old  World.  The  more 
minor  divisions,  so  far  as  transplanted  from 
Europe,  exhibit  the  special  characteristics  of 
their  parentage  ;  and  the  new  sects  originating 
here  have  been  organized  generally  around  some 
other  principle  than  a  scheme  of  doctrine.  But 
American  Presbyterianism,  of  whatever  variety, 
is  known  rather  by  the  stress  it  lays  upon  dog- 
ma.     It  cares  little  for  rituals  ;   the  robe  and  the 


106  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

ritual  are  uncongenial  to  it.  It  holds  to  the 
spiritual  rather  than  the  formal  conception  of 
the  sacraments  ;  it  is  no  stickler  for  mere  modes 
of  administration.  Though  boastful  of  its  policy, 
it  still  is  not  churchly  ;  it  generally  subordinates 
even  church  order  tr  the  church  belief.  It  be- 
lieves equally  with  any  in  a  vigorous,  fruitful 
religious  life  as  one  distinguishing  mark  of  a 
true  Church  ;  but  it  maintains  also  the  insepar- 
able relations  of  a  strong  and  penetrating  doc- 
trinal system  to  such  a  life.  It  holds  up  its 
creed  or  creeds  as  its  central  standard,  and  calls 
upon  its  adherents  to  rally  first  of  all,  and  last  of 
all,  around  these,  as  the  sign  by  which  it  would 
be  known  among  the  Churches.  It  may  thus  be 
characterized  as  supremely  a  doctrinal  body. 
This  has  been  thrown  at  it  as  a  stigma  ;  it  ac- 
cepts the  stigma,  and  wears  it  as  an  honor.  No 
branch  of  Protestantism  has  a  stronger  or  ampler 
creed  ;  none  holds  its  creed  more  tenaciously  or 
with  greater  fervor.  Here,  as  in  Europe,  amid 
all  its  varieties,  it  is  conspicuously  the  Church 
of  the   Doctrines. 

Wherever  we  find  him,  this  fact  is  vividly 
illustrated  in  the  typical  Presbyterian.  We 
spontaneously  fancy  him  a  man  of  lengthened 
feature,  of  serious  aspect,  of  reflective  nature. 
His  belief  was  wrought  into  him  with  the  i-psis- 
si7na  verba  of  the  Shorter  Catechism.  It  was 
confirmed  by  the  type  of  preaching  to  which  he 
listened  in  his  youth,  and  perchance   by  further 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  107 

Studies  in  the  Symbols.  The  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, even  before  the  Psalms,  is  his  favorite 
portion  of  Scripture.  He  believes  tirst  of  all, 
and  above  all  else,  in  God  ;  God  as  sovereign 
in  all  his  purposes,  and  righteous  in  all  his  ways. 
He  has  wrestled  with  the  dark  problem  of  the 
decrees  and  of  election,  and  believes  himself 
from  eternity  a  predestinated  heir  of  grace. 
His  faith  in  the  divine  elements  and  factors  in 
salvation  is  absolute,  unconquerable.  He  finds 
his  daily  meat  and  drink  in  the  most  cardinal 
truths  of  the  gospel,  and  gathers  strength  from 
them  day  by  day.  The  doctrines  are  his  de- 
light ;  they  work  themselves,  as  living  verities, 
into  all  -his  experience  ;  they  constitute  the  stuff 
and  substance  of  his  character  as  a  religious 
man.  He  is  more  ready  than  other  men  to  talk 
of  the  doctrines,  to  argue  for  or  about  them,  to 
fight  for  them  on  whatever  field.  Always  posi- 
tive and  sometimes  dogmatic,  he  knows  what 
he  believes  and  why  he  believes  as  he  does,  and 
above  most  other  disciples,  is  always  ready 
to  give  a  reason,  or  a  multitude  of  reasons,  for 
the  faith  that  is  in  him.  Hence  the  cast  and 
complexion  of  his  experience,  his  exaltation  of 
preaching,  his  aversion  to  liturgy  and  form,  his 
sober  and  apparently  passionless  devotions. 
Hence  also  his  special  zeal  for  the  truth  of  God, 
his  ardor  in  the  exaltation  and  diffusion  of  the 
Scriptures  as  the  trulj^  inspired  Word,  his  inter- 
est in  Christian  missions,  his  readiness  to  make 


i08  thir-Ty  years  in  lane. 

large  sacrifices  for  the  gospel.  In  a  word,  he 
is  what  he  is,  as  a  Christian  man,  because  he  is 
so  vitally  a  man  of  doctrine  —  a  man  in  whom 
the  truth  of  God,  as  gathered  into  his  accepted 
creed,  is  both  center  and  circumference  in  be- 
lief,— both  light  and  life  to  the  soul. 

But  while  American  Presbyterianism  is  thus 
distinctly  doctrinal,  it  is  also  true  that  the  doc- 
trine has  never  existed  here  in  any  single  and 
permanent  variety,  but  rather  has  developed 
itself  historically  in  diversified  and  progressive 
forms.  A  distinguished  friend  has  said  that  our 
Presbyterianism  is  like  hickory — excellent  tim- 
ber, but  it  splits  too  easily.  It  lies  in  the  nature 
of  the  case,  as  humanity  is  constituted,  that  those 
who  hold  truth  very  tenaciously,  should  be  the 
readiest  to  hold  tenaciously  either  side  on  some 
recognized  point  of  difference, — should  be  the 
first  to  divide  about  trifles.  Latitudinarians 
often  agree  because  they  are  not  sufficiently 
earnest  in  the  faith  to  generate  a  difference, 
or  to  adhere  to. differences.  In  like  manner, 
sects  which  are  organized  around  mode  or 
worship  or  polity  primarily,  naturally  give  dog- 
ma a  secondary  place,  and  for  the  sake  of  union 
elsewhere  consent  often  to  wide  diversities  in 
faith  and  teaching.  The  old  taunt  against  the 
Anglican  Church  as  having  a  Popish  liturgy,  an 
Arminian  clergy,  and  a  Calvinistic  creed,  applies 
not  merely  to  all  State  churches,  but  to  every 
church   that   is  organized   around  any  other  than 


triE  THEOLOGY  OF  LANE.  109 

a  distinctive,  positive,  and  regulative  doctrinal 
system.  And  on  the  other  hand,  a  church  so 
organized  is  especially  exposed  to  diversitj-,  to 
conflict,  and  even  to  disruption,  on  points  con- 
nected with  either  the  substance  of  its  creed  or 
the  principle  of  subscription  to  such  creed. 
Even  little  differences,  which  would  hardl}^ 
agitate  another  type  of  organization,  may  ser- 
iously disturb  or  convulse  this.  This  inherent 
tendency,  it  may  be  added,  is  also  greatly  in- 
creased in  a  country  where  thougrht  is  so  free, 
and  where  the  expression  of  free  thought  is 
almost  absolutely  unrestrained.  For,  while 
American  Presbyterianism  may  be  said  to  have 
inherited  all  the  varieties  of  Calvinism  devel- 
oped in  Europe,  from  the  Swiss  controversies 
and  the  rupture  of  Dort  down  to  the  various  di- 
visions of  the  Scottish  Church, 'it  has  also  been 
exposed,  in  addition,  to  many  native  centrifugal 
tendencies,  and  thus  under  both  classes  of  in- 
fluence has  easily  and  sadly  fallen  apart,  in 
many  cases,  where  it  might  wisely  have  remained 
one.  Its  history,  from  the  division  of  1741,  down 
to  this  day,  furnishes  abundant  confirmation  of 
this  truth.* 


*Not  only  is  it  true  that  American  Presbyterianism  has 
never  yet  existed  in  any  one  variety  ;  the  expectation  that  it  will 
ever  become  one,  by  any  combination  of  these  varieties  in  doctrine, 
seems  to  be  extensively  surrendered.  Not  withsranding  the  many 
impressive  inducements  to  such  unification,  and  aUhough  we  stand 
essentially  on  the  same  general  basis  of  belief,  yet  continued  diver- 
sity of  organization  around  matters  confessedly  minor  appears  to  be 
expected,  and  even  desired,  almost  universally.     A  man  can  hardly 


llO  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

But  it  is  also  obvious  that  this  tendency  to 
variation,  partly  inherited  and  partly  native,  has 
carried  with  it  some  actual  and  healthfiil  advance 
in  the  generic  type  of  doctrine  mentioned.  The 
phrase,  American  Calvinism,  is  not  a  merely 
geographic  term  ;  it  represents  a  phase  or  mode 
of  Calvinistic  thought  and  Calvinistic  temper, 
as  real  as  the  Scottish  or  the  Continental,  and 
in  some  respects  an  improved  mode.  Though 
it  may  be  difficult  to  define  the  differences,  yet 
few  would  deny  their  existence.  American  Cal- 
vinism is  Calvinism  adjusted  in  both  form  and  spirit 
to  our  country,  our  people,  our  time.  It  carries 
on  its  face  less  of  the  technical,  the  scholastic, 
the  abstruse.  It  has  litle  interest,  relatively,  in 
old  parties  and  old  issues,  born  of  European 
life  ;  it  exhibits  less  of  the  rigidness  and  the 
pomp  characteristic  of  its  prototypes  in  the  east- 
ern world.  It  is  naturally  less  tenacious  of 
trifles,  and  more  in  love  with  what  is  generic 
in  the  cherished  scheme.    It  more  easily  subord- 


broach  the  broader  view  without  being  accused  of  disloyalty,  not 
merely  to  the  little  specialty  that  divides,  but  also  to  the  body  that 
embodies  and  glories  in  it.  Yet  the  broader  doctrinal  unity  here 
suggested  really  exists,  and  doubtless  the  lime  is  coming  when  it 
will  be  recognized.  At  least,  I  cannot  forbear  the  expression  in 
this  connection  of  a  hope,  that  in  this  country  there  is  yet  to  be 
developed  a  wider,  more  generous  and  more  unifying  view  of  what 
essential  Calvinism  is  ;  that  these  varieties  will  fade  away  in  the 
presence  of  that  grander  conception,  and  that  somewhere  in  the 
future  there  shall  grow  up  here,  before  the  gaze  of  the  world,  one 
American  Presbyterian  Church,  not  only  numerically  larger,  but 
also  intrinsically  greater  and  more  full  of  power,  than  any  the  world 
has  ever  yet  seen.  vSuch  is  my  humble  hope;  such  my  earnest 
daily  prayer. 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  ijX 

inates  the    doctrinal  to   the   practical,  and    holds 
the  truth  rather— as  the  Bible  does— for  what  the 
truth    accomplishes    in  life,   than    for    what    the 
truth  is    in    abstract    shape.      It  strongly    eYalts 
the  biblical  above  the  philosophic  aspects  of  the 
system,   and  tends    rather  toward    mediate    than 
toward    extreme   presentations.      It  draws    more 
careful  distinctions  between  the  plan  of  God  in 
nature  and  his  method  in  grace— is   less  fatalis- 
tic in  the   impression    it    makes.      It  presses  out 
more    fully    the  .human    factors    in   salvation- 
dwells  more  on  the  responsibility  of  man  for  his 
personal  dealing    with    the    gospel.       Freer  and 
more  flowing  in  its  statements,  and  more  catholic 
m  Its    temper,    it    offers  the    gospel    to    all  men 
more   readily,  and    on  scriptural  grounds    opens 
more  widely    the    doors   of    grace.       Under  the 
pressure  of  its  vast  responsibility  on  this   conti- 
nent,  it  is  suffused    more  largely    with  the    mis- 
sionary  spirit,  and     demands    to    be    stated    not 
with  technical  completeness,   but  rather  in  such 
ways  as  will  best    commend  it    savingly  to    the 
unevangelized  multitudes  thronging  to  our  shores 
Toward  other  types  of  evangelical  belief  it  is  in 
the  main    less  antagonistic  ;  its    grasp  of  every 
Christian  hand    is  more    spontaneous    and   more 
fraternal.      In  a  word,  it  has  gathered  largeness 
breadth,  catholicity,  from  the  vastness  of  its  hab- 
itation ;   it    has   caught    and    embodied  much    of 
our    national    spirit,   purpose,  tendencies  ;    it    is 
not  Continental  or  British,   but  American. 


112  THIRTY   YEARS   IN    T.ANE. 

IV.  What  has  been  thus  defined  as  the 
characteristic  attitude  and  temper  of  American 
Presbyterianism,  is  conspicuously  true  of  our 
own  beloved  Church.  The  errand  historic  Union 
of  1869  may  be  introduced  as  a  valuable  illus- 
tration here.  In  that  memorable  compact,  which 
made  ours  the  largest  Presbyterian  body  in  the 
world,  there  was  no  compromise,  no  ignoring 
of  any  essential  element  in  the  common  Calvin- 
ism. Doctrine  still  held  the  foremost  place. 
Both  parties,  having  adhered  to  the  same  stand- 
ards during  their  separation,  adopted  those 
standards  anew,  and  made  their  common  belief 
— the  creed  rather  than  sacrament,  or  order, 
or  mode  of  worship — the  primary  basis  of  their 
combination.  Neither  confessed  any  doctrinal 
aberration  or  divergence  ;  neither  claimed  or 
admitted  any  superior  othodoxy.  Both  were 
true  in  that  compact  to  the  spirit  of  historic 
Presbyterianism  in  holding  forth  essential  unity 
of  faith  as  the  only  basis  on  which  a  Presbyter- 
ian Church  can  safely  stand.  And  their  unifica- 
tion, though  incited  largely  by  other  consider- 
ations, was  the  result  essentially  of  their  mutual 
trust,  their  intelligent  confidence  in  each  other, 
as  first  of  all,  and  always,  Reformed  and  Cal- 
vinistic. 

Yet  this  unification,  remarkable  as  it  was, 
did  not  prohibit  the  action  of  that  principle  of 
progressive  variety  inherent  in  the  common 
system.      Those    who    thus     agreed    in   avowing 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  113 

afresh    their    allegiance    to    that  system,  at    the 
same  time  granted  to  each  other  all  that  liberty 
of  varied  statement  and  explanation  and  adapta- 
tion of  the  system,    which  had  been    recognized 
heretofore    as    consistent    with  loyalty   to    what 
was   essential.      All   accepted  the    obvious   prin- 
ciple that  in  a  great  Church,  of   continental  pro- 
portions    and     composed    of    representatives    of 
every  type    of  historic    Calvinism,  such  diversi- 
fied   growths    of  opinion    must    be    not    merely 
admitted,   but  generously   welcomed  as  genuine 
offshoots    from   the  common    stock  of  faith.      All 
recognized    the    consequent   obligation    to    look 
beneath  and  around  each  specific  difference  for 
the     bnoader  oneness    that    comprehends    it  ;   all 
accepted  in    that    union  the  blessed   lesson  of  a 
widened  doctrinal    brotherhood,   and  of  a    more 
generous    Christian     catholicity.       The    Church 
and  the   School   were  no    longer    coterminous — 
within  the  one  Church  there  were  many  schools  ; 
and  what  divided  the  schools  was  placed  forever 
in    its    due    subordination    to     what    united    the 
Church.       Such,    in    a  word,  was    the  Union    of 
1869,  so  far  as   it  related  to    doctrine  ;  and   that 
Union,   important  as  it  was  in  other  aspects,  has 
this  as  its   chief  claim  to  historic  remembrance, 
that  it   was  thus  a  conscious,    trustful    and     gen- 
erous combination    of  real  varieties    of    opinion 
under  the  broad  banner  of  the  common   Calvin- 
istic  faith. 


H4  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

The  same  general  law  or  principle  is  also  de- 
termining our  interpretation  of  church  doctrine, 
and  our  theory  of  subscription  to  the  accepted 
creed.  The  wider  the  varieties  of  opinion  ad- 
missible within  the  boundaries  of  a  given*  doc- 
trinal system,  the  more  generously  must  the 
system  itself  be  interpreted,  and  the  more  gen- 
eric must  be  the  subscription.  Such  varieties  are 
bound  to  judge  each  other  charitably,  and  to 
deal  courteously  with  each  other,  as  brother 
deals  with  brother  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  As 
I  have  no  right  to  claim  precedence  for  my 
conception  of  the  common  scheme,  or  to  demand 
that  the  antithetic  conceptions  of  others  shall  be 
tested  or  measured  by  mine,  so  I  am  bound  by 
fidelity  to  the  Union  itself  to  resist  all  like  as- 
sumption on  the  part  of  others.  Liberty,  equal- 
ity, fraternity,  are  the  only  rule  and  safeguard 
here  ;  and  he  who,  under  any  special  stress  of 
partisanship,  allows  himself  to  depart  from  this 
rule,  is  recreant  not  merely  to  the  mutual  obli- 
gations of  the  Union,  but  to  the  law  and  the 
spirit  of  historic  Presbyterianism  universally. 
So  in  the  matter  of  subscription  as  well  as  in- 
terpretation. What  is  required  here,  is  an  hon- 
est and  manly  allegiance  by  each  and  all,  and 
especially  by  all  who  teach  or  who  hold  official 
position,  to  all  that  belongs  essentially  to  the 
common  Calvinism.  This  alleoriance  must  also 
be  coupled  with  an  equally  honest  and  manly 
recognition  of  the   ricrht,   not    of    the    individual 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  115 

subscriber,  but  of  the  Church,  to  decide  what  is 
thus  essential.  To  require  less  than  this  would 
be  to  open  the  doors  to  a  loose  and  destructive 
individualism,  which  is  inconsistent  with  the 
Presbyterian  conception  of  a  true  Church.  To 
demand  more  than  this,  as  by  superadding  to  the 
common  faith  the  idiosyncrasies  of  a  school,  or 
by  insisting  on  a  strictly  verbal  acceptance  of 
the  symbols,  would  be  an  equally  destructive 
and  unwarranted  invasion  of  personal  liberties 
constitutionally  guaranteed.  Nor  does  such  a 
position  give  room,  as  some  have  supposed,  to  a 
dangerous  latitudinarianism  ruinous  to  church 
unity.  The  fact  rather  is  that  strong  and  cordial 
unity  in  what  is  cardinal  is  best  secured  by  al- 
lowing variety  in  things  which  are  not  essential. 
I'here  is  less  room,  rather  than  more,  under 
such  a  constitution,  for  a  man  who  is  not  in 
heart  and  brain  a  Calvinist ;  and  wherever  judi- 
cal processes  are  needful  to  the  exclusion  of 
such  a  man,  such  processes  are  immensely 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  his  divergence 
has  occurred  in  the  face  of  a  broad  and  gener- 
rous  interpretation  of  standards  to  which  the 
erring  party  has  once  freely  declared  his  alle- 
giance.* 


*It  is  far  less  difficult  than  at  first  sight  may  seem  apparent,  to 
determine  what  variations  in  Calvinistic  thought  are  admissible  un- 
der the  Union,  or  what  degree  of  liberty  in  subscription  is  allow- 
able.  Those  who  hold  alike  to  the  eternal  purpose,  may  state  the 
doctrine  of  decrees  in  various  ways,  and  differ  in  respect  to  the  or- 
der of  the  divine  determinations;  the  supralapsarian  and  the  sublap- 
sarian  are  alike  Calvinistic.    Those  who  belieye  equally  in  the  trans- 


116  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

On  this  general  basis,  our  Church  is  com- 
mitted for  the  future  to  the  widest  liberty  of 
thought  consistent  with  denominational  integrity, 
and  to  the  cordial  recognition  of  every  true  ad- 
vance which  free  thought,  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Spirit,  may  be  led  to  make.  We  are  not 
held  movelessly,  as  if  it  were  a  spell,  by  the 
Calvinism  of  Calvin,  or  the  Calvinism  of  the 
Turretins,  or  the  Calvinism  of  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  or  the  Calvinism  of  Scotland,  either  past 
or  present.  We  hold  our  Calvinism  as  Ameri- 
cans ;  counting  ourselves  at  liberty  to  admit  in- 
to it  any  modifying  or  improving  influence  that 
may  flow  from    American    life,    and    at    liberty 


mission  of  sin  through  the  race  in  consequence  of  tlie  Adamic  trans- 
gression, may  explain  that  fact  on  either  the  physical  or  the  federal 
theory;  on  the  Edvvardean  conception  of  a  divine  constitution  work- 
ing out  this  issue;  or  even  on  the  hyi'Oth-^sis  of  a  social  liability  or 
exposure  eventuating  always  in  individual  sin  and  condemnation. 
Thos-  who  accept  together  the  great  fact  char  the  justice  as  well  as 
the  love  of  God  is  expressed  and  glorified  in  the  atoning  work  of 
Christ,  may  view  the  satisfaction  in  the  case  as  either  personal  or 
legal,  primarily — may  differ  as  to  the  meaning  of  penalty,  the  con- 
ception of  imputation,  the  scope  and  end  of  the  atonement.  Those 
who  rest  equally  in  the  doctrine  of  particular  election,  may  vary  in 
their  apprehensions  of  the  relations  and  functions  of  faith  viewed  ^s 
consequent  upon  the  divine  choice,  and  may  be  more  or  less  free  in 
their  announcement  of  the  great  scheme  of  gra-e  as,  in  some  true 
sense,  both  provided  for  and  therefore  offered  to  the  race.  Those 
who  hold  alike  to  the  primacy  of  the  Spirit  in  regeneration,  and  to 
the  sovereignty  of  God  in  the  dispensa'ion  of  the  Spirit,  may  differ 
as  to  their  mode  of  describing  that  deadness  of  human  nature  which 
makes  such  divine  working  needful,  or  in  their  presentations  of  the 
duty  and  ttie  responsibility  of  the  sinner,  when  summoned  under  the 
gospel  to  repentance  and  faith.  Those  who  adhere  sincerely  to  the 
common  Calvinism  in  general,  may  on  one  side  delight  in  setting 
that  Calvinism  forth  in  its  highest,  extremest,  most  dogmatic  forms, 
exalting  most  of  all  the  things -which  separate  it  from  other  types  of 
evangelical  belief;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  may  regard  themselves  as 
bound  by  the  principle  of  supreme  loyalty  to  the  common  gospel,  to 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  117 

also  to  express  it  as  we  hold  it,  not  in  imported, 
but  in  American  terms.  In  common  with  all 
true  Presb3^terians  in  all  times,  we  place  the 
Bible  above  our  standards,  and  regard  oursel- 
ves as  bound  tirst  of  all  to  study  the  Divine 
VV^ord  for  ourselves,  and  then  to  believe  what  it 
teaches,  just  as  God  gives  us  grace  to  appre- 
hend it.  And  if,  in  his  great  love  and  under 
the  impress  of  the  amazing  influences  affecting 
us  in  such  a  land  and  age  as  ours,  we  are  per- 
mitted to  see  the  truth  at  any  point  more  clear- 
ly and  more  comprehensively  than  our  fathers 
in  Britain  or  in  Holland  saw  it  two  or  three 
centuries    ago,    I    trust    that    we    have    courage 

(lescril)e  their  accepted  Ijelief  in  mediatinir,  moderate  forms,  where 
its  evangelical  atftliations  may  be  specially  prominent,  aid  its  bibli- 
cal and  Christian  quality  be  most  readily  seen  by  other  minds.  And 
those  who  subscribe  honorably  to  the  same  Confession,  may  either 
seek  to  enforce  that  document  in  every  line  and  letter,  as  an  arbi- 
trary and  inexorable  bond  holding  every  adherent  as  in  chains,  or 
may  they  rather  v^^elcome  with  fraternal  temper  all  who  in  substance 
accept  that  Confession  as  their  generic  creed,  and  amid  conscious 
variety  delight  to  call  all  Calvinists  their  brethren.  It  is  on  this 
broad  foundation,  which  provides  for  unity  in  what  is  essentia), 
with  just  variation  in  modes  of  statement  and  explanation,  that  our 
beloved  Church  was  placed  by  the  Union  of  1869.  The  language 
of  the  unifying  act,  the  voluminous  reports  and  conferences  which 
preceded  that  historic  event,  the  declarations  of  men  of  all  previous 
parties  and  shades  of  belief,  and  the  entire  history  of  our  ecclesiasii- 
cal  action  since  that  date,  confirm  these  statements.  So  thoroughly 
is  this  accepted  as  fundamental  by  all  cla«;ses  among  us,  that  the 
men  or  the  party  who  should  attempt  to  crowd  the  Church  back  in- 
to the  narrow  boundaries  of  any  school  of  interpretation,  or  to  limit 
by  any  rigid  process  the  measure  of  liberty  thus  constitutionally 
guaranteed,  would  be  sure  to  be  overwhelmed  by  the  popular  pro- 
test and  condemnation.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  he  who  can  not 
content  himself  with  this  measure  of  liberty,  but  demands  the  priv- 
ilege of  wider  divergence  in  opinion  or  in  subscription,  whatever 
else  he  may  be,  can  hardly  be  classed  among  us  as  either  Calvinist 
or  Presbyterian. 


118  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

enough  as  a  Church  to  welcome  such  revela- 
tions, and  fidelity  enough  to  the  common  Cal- 
vinism to  express  them.  I  am  no  advocate  of 
loose  thinking  or  loose  language  in  the  sphere 
of  belief  :  a  Christian  creed,  born  of  the  thought 
and  struggle  of  centuries,  is  to  me  one  of  the 
most  sacred  things  on  earth.  I  am  no  friend  of 
that  reckless  temper  which  would  tear  down  the 
old  before  discovering  any  worthier  substitute  ; 
there  is  a  fancied  progress  which  is  downward 
toward  iconoclasm  in  faith,  and  toward  an  ulti- 
mate extinction  of  faith.  But  while  avoiding 
this  hazardous  extreme,  we  may  still  believe  in 
healthful  progress  in  theological  opinion  within 
our  Church,  and  may  look  happily  forward  to 
advance  upon  advance  in  Calvinistic  thought  in 
our  communion,  even  from  century  to  century. 
Such,  at  least,  is  my  personal  hope  and  my 
constant  expectation  and  prayer. 

V.  Fresh  illustrations  and  confirmations  of 
these  general  statements  may  be  derived  from 
more  recent  developments  in  our  denominational 
experience.  It  is  an  obvious  truth  that  the  nat- 
ural influence  of  such  principles  and  such  a 
spirit  as  I  have  described  must  be  to  awaken 
confidence,  to  exclude  divisions,  to  promote  har- 
mony, to  quench  incipient  heresies.  The  larger 
love  thus  evoked  will  furnish  an  interior  spring 
to  union  in  effort,  and  to  rivalry  in  consecra- 
tion to  the  common  good.  Ephraim  and  Judah, 
under  its  action,    will  instinctively   drop   the  un- 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  119 

profitable  process  of  mutual  vexation,  and  devote 
themselves  rather  to  the  unfolding  and  defense 
of  the  common  faith.  Doctrine  will  not  he  less 
regarded  or  Calvinism  the  less  honored,  while 
the  Church  will  be  the  more  broadly  and  strong- 
ly loved.  Such  is  the  natural  tendency  of  such 
a  denominational  attitude  as  I  have  outlined, 
and  such  results  might  be  expected  to  accom- 
pany its  realization.  What  a  confirmation  of 
that  inference  do  we  discover  in  the  remarkable 
degree  of  doctrinal  harmony  which,  in  the 
main,  has  characterized  the  period  since  the 
Union!  Never  was  there  a  time  during  their 
separation  when  the  bodies  uniting  were  more 
true  to  their  symbols,  more  settled  in  their  Cal- 
vinism, or  more  thoroughly  unified  in  the  pres- 
ence of  conscious  variety,  than  now.  And  if 
the}^  remain  true  to  the  principles  and  temper 
of  their  alliance,  this  natural  and  healthful  pro- 
cess of  unification  may  be  expected  to  continue 
until  our  Church  shall  exhibit  to  the  world  the 
spectacle  of  an  organization,  not  simple  but 
complex  ;  not  abiding  in  any  single  form,  but 
dwelling  in  many  forms  ;  yet  consciously  one  in 
faith  and  spirit,  and  one  alike  in  purpose  and  in 
destiny. 

This  process  of  unification  is  not  likely  to 
be  arrested  by  any  discussions  current  among 
us,  even  around  such  cardinal  questions  as  the 
inspiration,  or  the  unity,  or  authoritativeness  of 
the  word  of  God.       It  is  a  noticeable   fact,   that 


120  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

most  of  these  discussions  relate  to  matters 
which  lie  clearly  outside  of  our  Confession. 
The  theologians  of  Westminster  did  not  con- 
cern themselves,  for  example,  with  any  specific 
theories  of  inspiration  ;  but  simply  asserted  the 
broad  fact — which  we  all  accept — that  the  Bible 
is  the  literally,  adequately  inspired  word  and 
revelation  of  God  ;  fully  and  authoritatively 
teaching  what  man  is  to  believe  concerning 
God,  and  what  duty  God  requires  of  man.  Vari- 
ous theories  of  this  great  fact  of  inspiration  have 
since  arisen,  and  various  explanations  still  are 
current  in  evangrelical  circles — from  that  of 
simple  superintendence  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  to 
that  of  a  verbal  dictation  running  with  equal 
rigidity  through  psalm  and  history,  prophecy 
and  parable  and  dogmatic  precept.  In  respect 
to  all  such  opinions,  the  attitude  of  our  own 
Church,  and  even  the  regulative  principles  of 
the  common  Protestanism,  constrain  us  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  large  liberality,  so  long  as  the  cardinal 
fact  is  faithfully  held.  No  man  or  school  has  a 
right  to  furnish  a  hypothesis  here,  and  require 
others  to  accept  it  under  peril  of  denominational 
disfavor.  Differences  in  explanation  or  defini- 
tion are  clearly  admissible,  so  long  as  the  ex- 
plaining is  not  an  explaining  a  way — so  long  as 
the  defining  is  not  a  destructive,  but  a  construc- 
tive process.  The  Church,  indeed,  possesses 
the  supreme  right,  ecclesiastically,  to  introduce 
more  exact    statements,  and  then  to  make   these 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  121 

Statements  authoritative  within  her  own  bounds. 
In  other  words,  the  Church  of  our  times  may, 
as  justly  as  the  Presbyterianism  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  declare  her  definitive  judgment 
on  this  or  any  other  vital  point,  and  may  enter 
her  protest  against  all  opinions  at  variance  with 
that  judgment.  But  until  this  is  done,  honest 
loyalty  to  the  essential  fact  as  described  in  our 
symbols  is  all  that  a  just,  sensible,  catholic  Pres- 
byterian can  require. 

Another  illustration  forces  itself  upon  our 
notice  in  the  questions  now  under  discussion 
within  the  field  of  biblical  criticism.  Without 
being  an  expert  in  such  matters,  and  while  rest- 
ing my  faith  largely  on  the  conclusions  of  more 
competent  brethren,  I  am  free  to  say  that  the 
conception  of  the  Pentateuch  as,  especially  in 
its  legal  portions,  a  growth  of  several  centuries, 
finally  compiled  and  presented  to  the  Church  in 
one  organic  shape,  has  not  yet  commended 
itself  to  my  judgment  as  anything  more  than  an 
interesting  but  unverified  hypothesis.  I  am  free 
also  to  say,,  that  I  anticipate  from  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  question  thus  raised,  only 
a  firmer  faith  in  the  Mosaic  authorship 
essentially,  and  beyond  this  a  serener 
confidence  in  the  entire  Old  Testament^law, 
and  psalm,  and  prophecy — as  a  veritable  com- 
munication from  God.  Yet  two  things  are  en- 
tirely clear  to  me  here.  First,  that  one  may 
hold  the  other  view,   and  yet  adhere  as  fully   as 


i22  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

any  of  us  to  the  cardinal  conception  of  a  divine, 
supernatural  agency  at  work  in  and  through  the 
entire  process  of  revelation  as  recorded  in  the 
Pentateuch,  though  that  process  may  have  re- 
quired ages  and  the  joint  action  of  many  minds 
for  its  accomplishment.  And  second,  that  there 
is  no  warrant  whatever,  either  in  our  S3^mbols  or 
in  our  historic  position  as  a  Church  for  condemn- 
ing, or  even  suspecting  ecclesiastically  those 
who  hold  such  an  opinion.  The  true  tribunal 
here  is  the  tribunal  of  sanctified  scholarship ; 
and  they  who  carry  such  a  question  to  any  other 
court,  may  justly  be  suspected  of  inability  to 
handle  it  successfully  in  this. 

On  all  such  questions,  whether  already 
present,  or  just  now  hanging  like  distant  clouds 
on  the  horizon,  catholic  Presbyterianism  can 
take  but  one  position.*  Those  who  regard 
theology  and  exegesis   as  finished,  and  the  faith 


"*It  has  indeed  been  broadly  intimated  that  our  Church,  in  ac- 
cepting such  a  basis,  has  surrendered  itself  fatally  to  the  control  of 
a  destructive  latitudinarianism ;  that  unorthodox  elements  have 
thus  been  admitted  into  the  body,  and  are  festering  there,  to  the 
corruption  of  its  character  as  a  sound  and  faithful  representative  of 
Calvinism.  Organic  union,  and  even  fraternal  fellowship  with 
such  a  Church  would  be,  it  is  loftily  said,  sinful  complication  with 
heresy,  and  even  disloyalty  to  Christ.  Such  opinions,  like  the 
flaunting  blossoms  of  certain  poisonous  plants,  may  safely  be  left  to 
wither  on  their  stem.  We  may  spare  ourselves  the  pain  of  char- 
acterizing them  as  they  deserve.  No  thoughtful  mind  can  doubt 
that  our  beloved  Church,  going  forward  firmly  in  the  path  already 
chosen,  will  prove  her  orthodoxy  all  the  more  efficiently  in  and 
through  her  large  liberality,  and  win  popular  assent  and  affection 
all  the  more  widely,  the  continent  over,  because  she  has  learned, 
not  to  only  hold  the  truth,  but  according  to  the  Pauline  motto  to 
hold  the  truth  in  love. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF   LANE.  123 

of  the  Church  as  settled  once  for  all,  can  do 
nothing  but  confront  every  such  issue  with  some 
dictum  born  of  other  times,  and  invoke  on  those 
who  raise  it  the  fluctuating  gales  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline.  They  can  only  appeal  to  some 
church  father  or  to  some  church  school,  or  pos- 
sibly assume  to  be  fathers  or  schools  themselves, 
in  order  by  such  methods  to  frown  down  or 
scare  down  each  rising  problem.  But  our 
Church  is  not  likely  to  fall  in  with  a  policy  so 
narrow  or  so  pernicious.  The  steps  already 
taken  toward  a  large  interpretation  of  her  sym- 
bols, and  the  general  treatment  accorded  to  her 
chosen  sons  in  whatever  field  of  scholarly  research 
are  sufficient  pledges  for  the  future.  The  path  of 
such  a  church  is  of  necessity  onward.  To  hes- 
itate is  to  surrender  to  the  past ;  to  surrender 
to  the  past,  and  suffer  the  past  to  control  the 
future,  would  be  simply  to  die  out,  and  give 
way  to  younger  growth  and  a  worthier  type  of 
thought  and  life.  It  may  therefore  be  antic- 
ipated that  our  beloved  Church  will  continue 
more  and  more  to  be  a  Church  of  real,  bene- 
ficent, and  in  the  main  harmonious  progress  in 
all  such  directions.  On  the  broad  platform  of 
a  catholic  Calvinism,  firm  as  granite  on  every 
essential  point,  but  generous  to  all  variations 
within  the  territory  of  essential  truth,  she  may 
and  will  go  on  to  be  all  that  any  Church  of 
Christ  can  become  in  progressive  power,  in 
widening  faith  a-nd  influence,  even  down  to  mil- 


i24  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   I.ANli. 

lennial  times.  God  grant  iti  The  Presbyter- 
ianism  of  the  world  needs,  all  Protestantism  of 
whatever  variety  needs,  the  common  Christianity 
needs,  the  vision  of  such  a  Church,  leading  as 
an  archangel  along  the  path  of  true  Christian 
catholicity,  toward  that  final  form  of  church 
faith  and  church  life  in  which  these  shall  all 
become  one,  even  as  Christ  and  the  Father  are 
one.  God  grant  that  such  a  vision,  such  a  glory, 
may  yet  become  real! 

VI.  Descending  finally  from  these  high 
ranges  of  inquiry  to  what  more  directly  con- 
cerns ourselves,  I  may  now  add  the  closing 
declaration,  that  Lane  Seminary  as  an  institu- 
tion, if  I  justly  apprehend  its  position,  is  firmly 
planted  on  the  broad  platform  of  historic  Pres- 
byterianism,  which  I  have  thus  very  imperfectly 
described.  It  is  but  just  to  remark  that  in  pass- 
ing under  the  banner  of  what  was  termed  the 
New  School  Church  into  the  historic  union 
already  defined,  this  Seminary  was  called,  on 
the  one  side,  to  surrender  no  distinctive  phase 
of  doctrine,  to  sacrifice  no  revered  tradition,  to 
accept  no  new  standard  or  test  of  faith  or  of  in- 
struction. It  was  simply  to  continue  to  be,  as 
it  had  been,  a  Calvinistic  institution  ;  bound  to 
be  true  always,  as  it  had  always  been  true,  to 
every  essential  element  in  the  common  symbol 
of  faith.  But  it  is  also  just  to  say  that,  while 
abiding  thus  in  its  admitted  and  approved  variety, 
tliis  Seminary,  as  well  as  every  other,  came,  in 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  125 

the  spirit  of  that  high  compact,  under  new  ob- 
ligations to  recognize  sympathetically  all  other 
admitted  varieties  in  Calvinistic  opinion,  and  so 
far  as  lay  within  its  power  to  make  that  union 
doctrinally,  as  well  as  ecclesiastically,  a  real 
unification.  While  it  retained  its  original  type, 
it  was  no  longer  called  upon  to  emphasize  its 
specialties  in  any  sort  of  antagonism.  It  was 
rather  bound  to  cultivate  all  admissible  affinities, 
to  meliorate  existing  differences  and  contrasts, 
and  especially  to  bring  out  and  hold  up  all  the 
more  zealously  what  was  most  central  and  vital. 
None  the  less,  but  rather  the  more,  was  it  sum- 
moned to  lay  stress  on  the  element  of  doctrine, 
as  true.  Presbyterianism  has  always  done  ;  and 
none  the  less,  but  rather  the  more,  was  it  bound 
to  hold  forth  the  Calvinistic  scheme,  embodied 
in  our  symbols,  as  the  clearest,  strongest,  most 
complete  type  of  Christian  belief.  It  also  came 
under  renewed  obligations  to  be  true  to  the  best 
traditions  and  principles  of  American,  as  distin- 
guished from  European,  Presbyterianism  ;  and 
to  stand  forth,  as  God  should  give  its  represen- 
tatives grace,  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle  for  a 
free  and  generous  interpretation  of  our  creed, 
and  a  kindred  development  of  our  denomina- 
tional policy  and  life.  Abandoning  nothing 
that  had  belonged  to  it  in  the  past,  it  was  thus 
called  to  enter,  with  every  other  like  institution, 
into  the  grander  future  opening  before  our  be- 
loved   Church,  with    an  enlarged  sense  of    wha 


u 


126  THIRTY    YEARS    IN   LANE. 

the  common  Calvinism  is,  and  with  a  spirit  as 
broad  and  free  as  that  scheme  of  doctrine  essen- 
tially is.  For,  they  who  most  firmly  hold  the 
Pauline  type  of  Christian  belief  should  also  be 
the  first  to  cherish  the  Pauline  spirit  ;  in  them 
the  large  caritas  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
should  have  the  freest  manifestation  ;  and  while 
they  most  firmly  hold  the  truth,  they  should  be 
the  first  to  teach  all  men  how  to  hold  the  truth 
in  love.  Such  has  been  the  prevailing  purpose 
and  temper  of  this  institution  from  the  day 
and  hour  of  the  union  until  now.  The  theology 
here  taught  has  been  unpartisan,  mediating, 
f  generous  and  cordial  toward  all  other  types  of 
teaching  in  our  Church  ;  ever  seeking  less  the 
triumph  of  dogmatic  or  partisan  opinion,  or  the 
training  of  a  class  of  narrow  catechumens,  than 
the  sound  and  fresh  indoctrination  of  intelligent 
students  in  the  highest  verities  of  our  Calvinistic 
faith.  In  every  department  of  instruction  here, 
the  development  of  such  a  type  of  mind  and 
character  has  been  the  supreme  purpose  ;  and 
the  measure  of  success  attained  is  abundantly 
recorded  in  the  fact  that  no  son  of  Lane,  in 
this  later  era,  has  ever  proved  recreant  to  our 
Church,  in  either  his  teaching  or  his  influence. 
Such  has  been  the  prevailing  plan  and  temper 
of  Lane  Seminary,  and  such  is  to  be  its  future 
spirit  and  mission  in  these  delicate  denomina- 
tional relations.  It  will  continue  to  maintain 
steadfastly,    not    a  narrow    and    extreme,    but    a 


THE    THEOLOGY    O^    LANE;  127 

generous  and  mediate  Calvinism,  as  much  as 
possible  in  harmony  with  all  other  existing  types 
of  evangelical  faith.  It  will  continue  to  main- 
tain this,  not  with  dogmatic  assumptions  of 
superiority,  or  with  systematic  purpose  to  exalt 
any  difference  which  may  divide  us  from  other 
Calvinists,  but  rather  in  that  temper  of  trustful 
catholicity  which  extends  to  all  within  our 
Church  a  cordial  hand — which  beareth  and 
believeth,  hopeth  and  endureth  much  from  all, 
and  which  submits  in  silence  even  to  unjust 
smiting  from  those  who  should  be  brethren. 
May  this  high  mission  never  be  dishonored  here, 
and  never  may  any  narrower  spirit  or  purpose 
pervade  these   halls! 

In  harmpny  with  what  is  thus  due  to  its  de- 
nominational relations,  Lane  Seminary  is  also 
committed,  by  its  entire  record,  to  generous 
sympathy  with  every  true  advance  in  whatever 
field  of  legitimate  inquiry.  It  is  not  believed 
here  that  Calvinistic  theology  is  a  finished 
science,  bearing  upon  its  closing  page  the  au- 
thoritative Finis  of  the  seventeenth  or  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  It  is  rather  believed  that  our 
doctrinal  system  is  yet  capable  of  expansion  and 
improvement,  not  merely  in  forms  of  expression, 
but  in  the  adjustment  of  truth  to  truth,  and  es- 
pecially through  the  addition  of  great  truths  of 
grace,  such  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  yet  but  inadequately  expressed  in  our  sym- 
bols.     Nor  is  it  believed  here  that  the  last  word 


128  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

has  been  said  in  regard  to  the  structure  or  pur- 
pose of  the  inspired  Word  of  God,  or  that  the 
Bible  has  been  already  exhausted  of  its  divine 
contents  ;  but  rather  that  careful  investigation 
will  reveal  new  truths  and  new  glories  in  the 
Scripture — truths  and  glories  which  are  to  pour 
their  splendor  on  coming  generations,  as  the 
grand  harmonizing  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  made  glorious  the  thought  and  life  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  should,  indeed,  be  said 
that  Lane  Seminary  is  not  the  home  of  crude 
novelties,  or  of  untested  hypotheses  in  either 
doctrine  or  exposition  ;  that  a  destructive  ration- 
alism has  never  found  shelter  or  encouragement 
here.  That  charge  is  false,  by  whomsoever 
made.  Nor  is  it  the  fact  that  untrue  or  danger- 
ous opinions  of  any  sort  are  taught  to  the  young 
men  here  assembled — opinions  subversive  of  the 
common  doctrine  or  belief  of  our  Church.  That 
allegation,  by  whomsoever  made,  is  too  obvi- 
ously untrue  to  be  dangerous.  Yet  it  can  be 
said,  with  truth  and  emphasis,  that  this  institu- 
tion stands  clearly,  as  to  both  teaching  and 
spirit,  in  what  we  believe  to  be  the  real  line  of 
healthful  and  evangelical  development  for  our 
Church  and  for  the  Church  of  Christ.  Lane 
reverentl3r  cherishes  the  past,  is  loyal  to  the 
present,  and  is  also  hopeful  as  to  a  future,  in 
which  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  shall  stand  forth 
in  still  freer  and  finer  perfection,  and  in  which  the 
living  Word  of  the  living  God,  critically  studied 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    LANE.  129 

and  thoroughly  believed,  shall  be  seated  on  the 
throne,  supreme  alike  over  the  creed  and  the 
life.  On  the  divine  orgin  and  the  adequate  in- 
spiration and  essential  unity  of  that  Word,  and 
on  its  absolute  right  to  bring  every  thought  into 
captivity  to  itself;  on  the  Pauline  scheme  of 
doctrine,  as  therein  revealed,  and  as  tested  by 
eighteen  centuries  of  Christian  experience  ;  and 
on  the  platform  of  a  just  historic  catholicity, 
this  honored  Institution  stands,  and,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  shall  ever  stand.  And  if  she  is 
thus  true  to  the  truth,  as  the  truth  breaks  forth 
more  and  more  from  that  divine  fount ;  and  thus 
loving  toward  all  who  in  whatever  variety  ad- 
here •  to  that  truth — moving  earnestly  in  this 
temper  along  the  path  of  true  progress  in 
thought  and  experience — we  may  be  assured 
that  nothing  can  harm  either  this  beloved  Semi- 
nary, or  those  who  as  teachers  and  students 
assemble  to-day  within  its  welcoming  walls. 
And    may  God  bless  us  all! 


V. 


The  Theologians  of  Lane. 


A  PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  LANE  CLUB. 


DECEMBER   10,  1889. 


Twenty  years  ago,  on  the  twenty-sixth  day 
of  November,  the  friends  of  Lane  Seminary 
were  gathered  in  these  grounds  to  commemor- 
ate the  close  of  the  fortieth  year  in  the  life  of  this 
beloved  Institution.  A  second  reason  for  the 
assemblage  and  the  celebration  lay  in  the  fact 
that  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  same  month  the  re- 
union of  the  two  branches  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  had  been  formally  consummated  at 
Pittsburg.  It  was  fitly  remembered  that,  al- 
though the  Seminary  had  for  thirty  years  been 
affiliated  closely  with  but  one  of  these  branches, 
it  had  been  organized  before  the  dark  days  of 
the  separation,  and  might  therefore  be  justly 
regarded  as  the  creation  and  inheritance  of  the 
now  united  Church.  It  was  also  believed  that 
the  Reunion,  under  conditions  so  cordial  and 
auspicious,  would  open  wider  doors  of  service 
and  usefulness  to  the  Institution,  and  prove  to 
be  for  it,  as  for  the  Church,  the  beginning 
of  a  larger,  grander  career. 

Twenty  years  have  passed,  and  we  are  here 
to  celebrate  with  gratitude  to  God,  the  sixtieth 
anniversary  in  the  life  of  the  Seminary,  and  the 
twentieth  in  the  organic  existence  of  the  great 
denomination  for  whose  advantage  it  was  found- 
ed, and  with  whose    remarkable  development  it 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  133 

has  had  the  privilege  of  being  happily  and  vi- 
tally associated.  In  such  celebration  we  have 
abundant  occasion  in  both  aspects  to  sing  great 
songs  of  praise  in  memory  of  the  past,  and  to 
frame  new  purposes  of  consecration,  to  gird 
ourselves  for  larger  endeavors,  in  view  of  the 
expanding  and  attractive  future  opening  alike 
before  the  Institution  and  the  Church. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  at  this  time  to  tell  the 
suggestive  story  of  these  twenty  years  ;  to  speak 
of  the  general  growth  and  progress  of  Lane 
Seminary  during  this  somewhat  critical  period 
in  its  history,  or  of  the  wonderful  things  which 
God  has  wrought  in  and  for  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Among  the  many  specific  themes 
which  this  conjunction  of  historic  events  sug- 
gests, my  mind  has  been  turned  toward  one 
which  has  not  hitherto  received  the  connected 
treatment  it  deserves,  and  whose  presentation  at 
this  time  for  several  reasons  seems  to  be  fitly 
devolved  upon  me.  That  theme  is  Oiu'  Theologians 
and  their  Theology  ;  considered  especially  in 
their  relations  to  the  belief  and  career  of  our 
united  Church. 

The  first  incumbent  of  the  theological  chair 
in  Lane  Seminary  was  Lyman  Beecher,  clariiui 
et  venerabile  nonien.  Born  and  educated  in  Con- 
necticut, a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  a  stu- 
dent of  theology  under  President  Dwight  ;  a 
young  pastor  first  on  Long  Island  ;  then  for  sixteen 
years  a  minister  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  where  the 


134  THIRTY   YEARS  IN   LANE. 

foundations  of  his  fame  were  laid  ;  afterward  for 
six  years  the  occupant  of  an  important  pulpit  in 
Boston,  just  at  a  time  when  evangelical  ortho- 
doxy was  beginning  to  make  successful  head- 
way against  the  dominating  forces  of  Unitarian- 
ism,  headed  by  the  eloquent  Channing  ;  always 
in  the  forefront  of  the  battle  in  behalf  of  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints  ;  recognized  as  a  writer  of  rare  vigor, 
as  well  as  a  commanding  preacher,  Dr.  Beecher 
came  to  this  Institution  after  a  first  and  then  a 
second  election,  at  the  close  of  1832,  and  three 
years  after  the  Academic  Department  had  been 
established.  He  became  almost  immediately, 
not  only  the  President  of  the  Seminary,  but  also 
the  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  in  this  city, 
and  a  welcome  leader  in  all  church  affairs  ;  en- 
tering thus,  in  the  prime  of  his  powers,  on  a 
career  in  which  for  eighteen  years  of  mingled 
sunshine  and  shadow  he  won  for  himself  his  last, 
if  not  his  highest  laurels,  as  a  teacher  and 
preacher  of  righteousness. 

It  was  the  dream  of  Dr.  Beecher  after  his 
retirement,  that  he  might  be  able  to  prepare  his 
System  of  Theology  for  the  press  ;  but  that 
dream,  like  many  others  of  like  character,  failed 
of  realization.  From  the  three  manuscript  vol- 
umes of  his  lectures,  now  in  possession  of  the 
Seminary,  it  would  be  impossible  to  draw  out 
such  a  sketch  of  his  system  as  would  do  justice 
to  his  memory.     These  manuscripts  are  in  such 


THE    THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  135 

condition,  from  their  obscure  chirography,  from 
the  numberless  erasures  and  altercitions,  from 
defective  and  shifting  arrangements,  and  from 
general  lack  of  method  and  order,  as  almost  to 
defy  the  most  loyal  and  patient  attempts  at  in- 
terpretation. Furthermore,  few  men  were  less 
bound  by  manuscript  or  by  strict  rules  of  me- 
thod, or  were  readier  at  any  time  to  make  di- 
gressions from  a  preconceived  line  of  precedure. 
One  of  his  most  competent  and  accomplished 
pupils  (Rev.  Dr.  Tuttle),  in  an  article  on  Dr. 
Beecher,  written  shortly  after  his  decease,  gives 
us  some  conception  of  his  manner  and  mode  of 
instruction  in  these  words  : 

"A-s  a  teacher.  Dr.  Beecher  was  not  very 
systematic.  *  *  *  Our  notes  show  that  he 
began  to  lecture  our  class  on  the  abstruse  themes 
of  Butler's  Analogy.  Among  our  most  delighful 
hours  were  those  spent  in  listening  to  his  illumi- 
nated lectures  on  Butler  ;  and  we  hope  to  see 
these  lectures  in  print,  although  it  is  certain 
that  some  of  the  best  parts  of  them  were  never 
written.  Then  came  his  lectures  on  the  Divine 
Existence,  Cause  and  Effect,  and  Mental  Philoso- 
phy, followed  by  the  lectures  on  Conscience,  by 
far  the  most  thrilling  discourses  we  ever  heard 
from  him.  He  first  delivered  them  out  of  place, 
as  to  the  system,  to  our  class,  and  we  heard  them 
a  second  time  in  one  of  the  Cincinnati  churches. 
We  regard  the  occasion  when  he  spoke  of  the 
Power  of  Conscience  as  among  the  grandest  ex- 


136  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

hibitions  of  his  pulpit  powers.  After  this  splen- 
did ej)isode  of  lectures  on  Conscience,  came  his 
course  on  the  Will,  the  Affections,  and  Moral 
Government  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  a  discussion 
of  his  favorite  theories  of  Man's  Free  Agency, 
the  whole  course  was  dislocated  by  the  intro- 
duction of  his  lectures  on  the  Trinity." 

So  far  as  his  system  of  theology  can  be 
traced  from  his  tangled  and  blurred  manuscript, 
his  instructions  fell  under  two  main  divisions. 
The  first  of  these  contains  what  he  describes  as 
the  elementary  doctrines  ;  the  being  of  God,  the 
divine  attributes,  the  image  of  God  in  man,  the 
law  of  God,  the  character  of  man,  the  divine  de- 
crees, the  plan  of  redemption.  The  second  di- 
vision included  the  Trinity,  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  the  atonement,  election  and  pardon,  the 
work  of  the  Spirit,  the  means  of  grace,  repent- 
ance and  faith,  human  responsibility  under  the 
Gospel,  the  day  of  judgment,  eternal  life  and 
eternal  death.  This,  at  least,  was  his  general 
outline,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  followed 
it  from  year  to  year,  without  marked  and  some- 
times startling  variations.  It  was  originally  in 
substance  the  system  which  he  had  learned  from 
his  revered  teacher,  though  Dr.  Dwight,  at  least 
in  the  pulpit,  gave  much  greater  prominence  to 
some  single  branches,  such  as  the  exposition  of 
the  moral  law  as  revealed  in  Scripture.  There 
were  two  special  influences  acting  upon  Dr. 
Beecher    at  later   stages    in    his    history,   which 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  137 

had  great  effect  upon  at  least  the  proportions 
if  not  the  substance  of  his  theology.  These 
came  especially  from  his  two  great  controversies 
with  the  Unitarianism  of  eastern  New  England, 
touching  the  sinfulness  and  depravity  of  man, 
and  the  full  divinity  and  vicarious  mediation  of 
our  Lord.  In  his  efforts  to  defend  against  such 
antagonists  as  Channing,  the  evangelical  doc- 
trine as  to  man  and  his  moral  needs,  he  had  been 
led  to  emphasize  in  his  own  mind,  and  perhaps 
unduly,  the  voluntary  element  in  all  sinning,  and 
had  consequently  lost  in  some  degree,  the  sense 
of  what  sin  is  as  a  state  of  the  soul,  involving 
some  species  of  hereditary  taint  and  of  trans- 
mitted guiltiness.  His  strong  and  stirring  con- 
ceptions of  the  moral  government  of  God,  de- 
rived partly  from  Butler  and  partly  from 
Edwards,  had  doubtless  strengthened  and  con- 
firmed this  tendency,  So  his  profound  belief  in 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  in  the  necessity  for  his 
mediation,  in  the  need  of  an  atonement  to  satis- 
fy justice  and  meet  the  claims  of  this  divine 
government,  in  the  moral  ability  and  consequent 
responsibility  of  every  sinner,  in  conversion  on 
the  part  of  man  as  correlative  to  regeneration  as 
an  act  of  God,  gave  a  peculiar  cast  and  tone  to 
all  he  taught,  even  at  some  hazard  of  dislocation 
in  his  teaching  and  of  incompleteness  in  his 
system  as  a  whole. 

Those  who  have  read  his  famous  sermon  on 
the     Faith     Unce     Delivered     to      the      Saints, 


138  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

preached  at  an  ordination  in  Worcester,  two 
years  before  Dr.  Beecher  removed  to  Boston, 
will  remember  the  remarkable  summary  of 
evangelical  truth  with  which  that  discourse  be- 
gan. There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  author 
of  that  summary  was  a  Calvinist,  in  whose  very 
heart  the  great  distinguishing  features  of  the 
Calvinistic  system  were  sacredly  treasured. 
Tliis  judgment  is  confirmed  by  his  able  defense 
of  his  position  against  the  criticisms' of  his  Uni- 
tarian opponents.  To  class  him  among  Pela- 
gians or  even  among  Arminians  after  that  de- 
fense, would  be  impossible  to  any  mind  not 
influenced  by  the  rabies  theologorum.  Nor  was 
there  ever  a  time  when  such  a  classification 
could  be  justified  by  fair  and  full  evidence.  It 
was  true,  as  alleged  against  him  in  his  famous 
trial,  that  in  emphasizing  the  responsibility  of 
the  sinner,  and  the  guilt  which  attaches  to  vol- 
untary and  personal  transgression,  he  sometimes 
made  too  little  of  the  doctrine  of  depravity  in 
the  nature,  in  some  sense  transmitted  from  our 
first  parents,  and  the  source  of  all  actual  sins. 
It  was  true,  that  in  urging  the  guilt  of  every 
soul  for  its  own  sin,  he  seemed  at  times  to  make 
too  little  of  the  fact  that  we  are  by  nature  the 
children  of  wrath,  and  are  by  original  sin  as 
well  as  by  actual  transgression  exposed  to  the 
divine  judgment  and  condemnation.  It  is  true, 
that  in  pressing  sinners  to  the  point  of  repent- 
ance and    faith — in   calling  upon  them    to  work 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  139 

out  their  own  salvation  by  the  most  strenuous 
efforts  of  which  they  were  capable,  taking  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  as  by  violence — he  occa- 
sionally appeared  to  be  laying  too  little  stress 
on  the  helplessness  of  the  soul  apart  from  grace, 
and  on  the  indispensableness  of  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  in  order  to  salvation.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  no  one  who  candidly  reads  his  discourses 
bearing  on  these  great  antithetic  aspects  of  the 
gospel,  or  who  studies  his  Views  of  Theology, 
which  contains  his  defense  of  himself  in  the 
ecclesiastical  trial  through  which  he  was  com- 
pelled to  pass,  can  have  any  serious  doubt  as  to 
the  sincerity  of  his  convictions  on  these  vital 
points  of  doctrine,  or  of  his  essential  loyalty  to 
that  system  of  theology  in  which  these  doctrines 
figure  as  essential  elements.  That  his  thinking 
and  teaching  were  somewhat  one-sided  and  out 
of  proportion,  may  readily  be  admitted  ;  that  it 
was  heretical,  few  would  now  affirm. 

That  Lyman  Beecher  rendered  valuable 
service  to  American  Calvinism,  and  to  the  theo- 
logical training  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  can 
not  be  denied.  Unquestionably  he  did  much,  even 
by  his  exaggerations  of  the  opposite,  to  arrest 
certain  tendencies  toward  narrow  and  mischiev- 
ious  extremes  in  doctrine  which  had  revealed 
themselves  in  some  quarters — extremes  which 
limited  the  rano-e  of  the  atonement,  narrowed 
down  the  scope  of  election,  denied  the  salvable 
condition    of    man,     exalted    the    sovereignty  of 


i40  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

God  to  the  point  of  arbitrariness,  held  to  repro- 
bation even  from  eternity,  and,  in  a  word,  turned 
Calvinism  into  a  species  of  Christian  fatalism 
which  was  destructive  not  merely  to  sound  be- 
lief, but  also  to  vital  religion.  From  such  lia- 
bilities, subtle  and  dangerous,  it  was  his  special 
mission  to  free  the  mind  and  the  heart  of  the 
Church.  In  proclaiming  with  almost  passionate 
zeal  the  freeness  of  the  gospel,  the  adequacy  of 
redeeming  grace,  the  fullness  of  the  Spirit,  the 
world-wide  offers  of  mercy,  the  guilt  of  the  sinner 
for  every  instant  of  delay,  he  not  only  corrected 
certain  injurious  tendencies  in  the  minds  of  men 
in  those  days,  but  also  implanted  the  seeds  of  a 
younger  and  fresher  type  of  Calvinism,  whose 
rapid  growth  and  influence  are  at  this  moment 
the  wonder  of  us  all.  Thus,  when  for  example, 
it  is  proposed  to  improve  our  Confession  by  the 
addition  of  a  full  and  definite  statement  of  the 
love  of  God  for  all  men,  the  free  offer  of  salva- 
tion to  all,  and  the  obligation  of  the  Church  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  salvation  to  all  the  world, 
we  can  not  fail  to  recognize  in  such  a  proposi- 
tion the  direct  embodiment  in  confessional  terms 
of  what  Dr.  Beecher  held  and  taught  in  this  In- 
stitution fifty  years  ago.  And  when,  for  another 
example,  it  is  proposed  to  eliminate  from  the 
Confession  the  implication  that  there  are  dying 
infants  not  elect,  and  to  declare  that  all  infants 
dying  in  infancy  are  saved  by  the  grace  of  Christ 
through  the  wonderful  efficacy  of  the  Spirit,  we 


THE    THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  141 

should  not  forget  that  among  American  divines 
it  was  Lyman  Beecher  who,  before  he  became 
a  teacher  here,  openly  advocated  this  broader 
view,  and  gave  it  currency  first  in  New  Eng- 
land and  then  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

That  the  first  occupant  of  the  Chair  of  The- 
ology in  this  Institution  was  a  great  theologian, 
can  hardly  be  claimed.  Constitutionally  he  was 
builded  for  a  great  preacher,  and  there  are  those 
who  regard  his  transplantation  to  another  sphere 
and  work  at  the  age  of  nearly  three-score  as  a 
mistake.  What  he  might  have  become  had  he 
been  called  to  the  task  of  teaching  divinity 
twenty  years  earlier,  no  one  can  well  determine. 
As  it  vvas,  the  wonder  is  that,  beginning  at  that 
late  period  of  life,  oppressed  with  a  multitude 
of  domestic  cares,  loaded  down  by  the  demands 
of  a  large  parish,  called  in  many  directions  to 
deliver  addresses,  organize  churches,  preach  in 
revivals,  and  all  the  while  weighted  with 
burdens  and  perplexities  connected  with  the 
Seminary  in  its  impoverished  condition,  he  vvas 
able  to  do  half  what  he  did  in  his  difficult  de- 
partment of  service.  But  besides  all  this,  if 
there  is  one  thing  which  stands  especially  in 
the  way  of  calm,  consecutive,  successful  study 
of  divine  things,  it  is  the  fact  of  being  suspected 
and  criticised  by  unfriendly  minds— of  having 
both  ability  and  orthodoxy  ruthlessly  challenged 
—of  being  compelled,  as  he  was,  to  enter  on  the 
pitiable    task    of    ecclesiastical    defense    against 


l42  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

the  charge  of  disloyalty  to  the  accepted  faith. 
In  such  a  world  as  this,  it  is  the  too  frequent 
result  of  eminence,  that  one  becomes  an  object 
of  envious  and  carping  criticism,  and  has  his 
noblest  feelings  and  aspirations  repressed,  and 
his  best  endeavors  impaired  and  even  frustrated 
at  the  hands  of  narrower  and  meaner  minds. 
Dr.  Beecher  experienced  all  this  in  an  unusual 
degree,  and  he  must  have  been  conscious,  even 
with  his  buoyant  and  generous -nature,  that  his 
career  in  Lane  was  far  from  being  what  it  might 
have  been  under  rnore  propitious  conditions. 
And  when,  at  length,  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy- 
five,  and  burdened  with  the  painful  sense  of  fail- 
ing powers,  he  retired  from  his  post,  there  must 
have  been  an  indescribable  element  of  sadness 
mingling  in  his  soul  with  the  just  consciousness 
that  he  had  been  permitted  to  do  a  great  work 
here  for  the  truth  and  for  the  Church  of  God. 

On  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Beecher  in  1851, 
Professor  Allen,  who  had  for  eleven  years  occu- 
pied the  Chair  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  vacant  post,  and  continued  to  serve 
the  Seminary  as  a  teacher  of  theology  until  1867, 
when  his  health  gave  way  entirely,  and  he  re- 
moved to  Granville,  O.,  where,  after  a  long 
period  of  progressive  enfeeblement  in  both  body 
and  mind,  he  died  in  November,  1870.  I  have 
had  an  opportunity  on  another  occasion  to  speak 
of  the  general  services  of  Dr.  Allen  to  this  In- 
stitution  during    the    twenty-seven   years  of  his 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  143 

active  connection  with  it,  and  especially  during 
the  sixteen  years  of  his  tlieological  professor- 
ship, when  the  main  burden  of  caring  for  its 
material  interests  rested  far  too  heavily  on  his 
willinor  shoulders.  What  he  was  as  a  theologian 
it  is  now  my  privilege  to  describe,  not  in  my 
own  words,  but  in  the  language  of  a  beloved 
colleague — Prof.  Evans — who  knew  him  inti- 
mately when  a  student  under  his  instruction,  and 
who  afterward  became  still  more  fully  intimate 
with  him  as  an  associate  in  the  Faculty  for 
the  four  years  preceding  his  retirement.  The 
following  outline  has  been  prepared  by  Dr. 
Evans  at  my  request  for  this  occasion  : 

Dr.  Allen's  pre-eminent  merit  as  a  teaclier 
was  clearness,  and  like  water  which  is  so 
clear  that  sometimes  we  take  for  crranted  it  can 
not  be  deep,  his  treatment  of  great  themes 
might  at  times  leave  the  impression  at  tirst  that 
it  was  marked  by  almost  elementary  simplicity. 
It  was  only  as  we  reviewed  the  ground,  or  from 
some  advanced  vantage-point  surveyed  in  tlieir 
broad  affiliations  the  well-defined,  far-reaching, 
much-embracing  statements  which  had  seemed 
so  simple,  that  we  realized  the  full  extent  and 
value  of  our  possessions.  His  method  of  teach- 
ing was  by  lectures.  His  own  course  was  the 
best  vindication  of  the  method.  No  text-book 
certainly  could  have  given  us  his  system  in  its 
organic  completeness,  philosophical  development 
and  logical  unity. 


l44  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANli. 

The  lectures  were  so  orderly  and  luminous 
that  it  was  easy  to  take  notes  of  them.  Inabil- 
ity to  report  them  would  have  been  proof  of 
dullness,  which  of  itself  should  have  been  es- 
teemed a  disqualification  for  the  ministr}^.  One 
peculiarity  may  be  noted  here  which  I  found 
exceedingly  lielpful.  In  beginning  the  study  of  a 
great  theme,  t\  o-.,  the  Atonement,  the  discussion 
would  start  from  a  tentative  general  statement, 
embodying  the  central  idea  or  fact  in  its  simplest 
protoplasmic  form.  This  was  then  unfolded, 
point  by  point,  part  by  part,  in  all  their  several 
implications  and  bearings,  difficulties  were  stated 
and  examined,  qualifications  were  suggested  and 
weighed,  collateral  considerations  presented  and 
adjusted,  until  the  end  was  reached  in  the  shape 
of  an  enlarged  and  completed  statement,  in 
which  all  the  vital  factors  of  the  discussion 
seemed  spontaneously  to  crystallize.  In  a  word, 
the  inductive  process  which  had  been  pursued 
in  the  study  was  reproduced  in  the  lecture-room, 
so  that  each  student  could  see  the  way  to  work 
out  the  problem  for  himself. 

The  first  fifteen  minutes  of  the  hour  were 
generally  given  to  a  review  of  the  preceding 
lecture,  and  free  conversation  on  the  subject. 
This  was  always  interesting  and  profitable,  and 
not  seldom  absorbed  the  larger  half  of  the  hour. 
Dr.  Allen's  genial  spirit,  accessible,  unassum- 
ing manner,  and  brotherly  sympathy,  invited 
confidence,  and  encouraged  the  independent  ex- 


THE    THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  145 

pression  of  thought.  The  simplicity  and  sincerity 
of  the  nnan  disarmed  all  idle  and  captious  in- 
quisitiveness,  while  every  honest  inquiry  was 
entertained  with  frank  hospitality.  His  remarks 
were  short,  clear,  and  always  to  the  point.  He 
was  quick  to  see  the  weakness  of  a  false  posi- 
tion, and  enjoyed  beyond  most  men  the  logical 
luxury  of  a  redttctio  ad  absurdum.  At  the  same 
time  the  kindly  twinkle  of  his  eye  was  no  less 
persuasive  than  his  logic  or  didactic  was  con- 
vincing ;  and  to  a  company  of  theologues  be- 
fogged with  theological  chimeras,  his  straight- 
forward, homely  common  sense  was  like  a  stream 
of  pure  air  and  a  river  of  sunshine  to  the  stifled, 
bat-ridden  prisoners  of  a  cave.  Especially  con- 
siderate, cordial  and  helpful  was  he  in  dealing 
with  the  peculiar  individual  difficulties  and 
struggles  which  were  carried  to  the  privacy  of 
his  own  study,  where,  even  more  than  in  the 
lecture-room,  the  heart  of  the  man,  the  deep 
experience  of  the  theologian,  brought  not  only 
mental  relief,  but  spiritual  benediction. 

Dr.  Allen's  detinition  of  Christian  Theology 
is  :  The  Science  of  God  manifested  in  Christ. 
The  only  safe  method  to  be  pursued  in  con- 
structing it  he  believes  to  be  the  inductive. 
The  constructive  principle  of  unity  for  it  he 
states  to  be  ''the  incarnation  and  work  of  Christ, 
in  order  to  render  it  possible  that  divine  favor 
might  be  extended  to  the  guilty  consistently  with 
the     deniands     of       sovereign      authority;"      or 


146  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

"more  briefly,  the  incarnation  and  death 
of  Christ  for  the  purpose  of  harmonizing  the 
justice  and  mercy  of  God."  The  system,  it 
will  thus  be  seen,  is  characteristically  Christo- 
centric.  The  essential  features  of  a  sys- 
tem constructed  on  this  principle  are  thus 
specified  : 

"1.  It  will  exalt  the  righteousness  of  God's 
law  and  government,  placing  holiness,  or  obedi- 
ence to  the  law  and  government  of  God,  above 
everything  else  ;  above  happiness,  station,  fame, 
honor,  or  any  other  form  of   good. 

"2.  It  will  present  the  depravity  of  the 
transgressor  so  that  it  will  be  seen  that,  if  a 
righteous  law  takes  its  course  without  mercy, 
he  will  perish. 

"3.  It  will  present  the  bearing  of  the 
Atonement  on  the  righteousness  of  the  universe, 
or  the  sustaining  of  a  righteous  law. 

"4.  It  will  exhibit  the  consequent  freedom 
of   grace. 

"5.  Also,  the  reinstating  of  the  sinner  who 
accepts  the  Atonement,  both  in  a  righteous  state 
and  in  a  holy  character,  as  conditions  of  happi- 
ness. 

"6.  And  finally,  the  abiding  misery  of  those 
who  reject  the  Atonement." 

Along  these  fundamental  lines  the  develop- 
ment of  the  system  advances  from  beginning  to 
end. 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  147 

The  two  great  divisions  of  the  system  are  : 
God  as  Sufreme  Ruler ^  and  God  as  Redeemer. 
In  discussing  the  Being  of  God,  the  preference 
is  given,  as  might  have  been  expected  from  the 
author's  Baconianism,  to  the  a  -posteriori  argu- 
ment in  its  various  forms — cosmological,  teleo- 
logical,  moral,  although  the  c;  ^r/^ri  ( on tolog- 
ical)  argument  receives  fair  attention  and  close 
criticism.  The  Attributes  of  God,  fitting  him 
to  rule,  are  defined  and  described  with  exact 
discriminations.  The  Chief  End  of  God  in  Cre- 
ation is  defined  to  be  the  realization  of  his  own 
glory  as  the  sum  of  all  excellence  and  blessed- 
ness, both  for  God  himself  and  for  all  his  crea- 
tures. The  immortal  analysis  of  the  subject  by 
Jonathan  Edwards  is  indorsed,  with  thoughtful 
qualifications  of  his  phraseology. 

After  the  Ruler  and  Kis  End,  comes  the 
Plan  by  which  He  rules,  commonly,  but  as  Dr. 
Allen  thinks,  less  satisfactorily,  designated  as  the 
Decrees  of  God.  The  o-round  of  this  Plan  is  the 
Sovereign  Will  of  God,  thus  defined  :  '*A  will 
uncontrolled  by  any  higher  power,  and  always 
acting  in  the  light  of  absolute,  infinite  knowledge 
and  benevolence.''  The  vexed  question  of 
the  relation  of  Divine  Sovereignty  to  man's 
Free  Agency  is  treated  with  humility, 
candor  and  due  reserve,  the  key  to  the  working 
solution  of  the  problem  being  found  in  the 
distinction  between  necessity  and  certainty,  a 
distinction       more       fully       elaborated     in     the 


148  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

analysis  of  the  Action  of  the  Will,  which  is 
given  further  on. 

The  Execution  of  the  Plan  is  then  taken  up 
in  the  two-fold  sphere  of  Creation  and  Govern- 
ment. The  former  head  introduces  the  discus- 
sion of  the  history,  order  and  time  of  creation, 
and  the  nature  and  properties  of  created  things. 
Here  the  discussion,  while  embracing  a  brief 
outline  of  angelology,  centers  in  Matter  and  Man. 
Under  matter,  the  chief  point  of  interest  is  the 
reality  and  potency  of  secondary  causes,  argued 
in  the  affirmative  with  vigor  and  acuteness. 
Here,  as  elsewhere  in  his  philosophy,  we  see  dis- 
tinct traces  of  the  influence  of  Reid  and  Ham- 
ilton. 

The  doctrine  of  man  is  elaborated  with 
great  fulness  and  profundity.  Dr.  Allen,  at  this 
point,  introduces  an  admirable  summary  of  his 
system  of  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy.  This 
is  fundamental  to  his  theology  as  the  science  of 
God  as  Ruler  and  Redeemer.  Stress  is  laid  on 
the  inductive  method  here  again.  The  sources 
of  our  knowlege  are  found  in  the  Bible,  in  con- 
sciousness, and  in  observation.  The  three  de- 
partments of  man's  being  are  given  as  the  In- 
telligence, the  Sensibilities  and  the  Will,  repre- 
senting the  three-fold  activity  of  Thought,  Feel- 
ing and  Choice.  In  the  sphere  of  Intellect  we 
find  three  distinctions  of  the  mind  as  knowing  : 
Consciousness,  as  knowing  the  Me  ;  as  knowing 
the  Not-Me  ;    Reason    and    Understanding  ;    the 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  149 

former  the  organ  of  necessary  truth,  the  latter 
of  contingent  ideas.  The  validity  of  the  deliver- 
ances of  consciousness  is  strenuously  maintained* 
This  is  characteristic  of  Dr.  A's  system  every- 
where. 

The  law  of  the  reason's  action  is  thus 
stated:  ''There  must  be  in  the  mind  an  idea  of 
an  object  or  event,  as  the  occasion  of  the  mind's 
action  in  apprehending  a  necessary  truth.  Body, 
e.  g:,  suggests  to  the  mind,  or  is  the  occasion  of 
its  having,  the  idea  of  space."  While  certain 
ideas  are  intuitive  and  necessary  when  they 
exist  at  all,  they  do  not  come  into  existence  in 
the  sphere  of  consciousness  or  mental  action, 
without  an  antecedent  occasion,  Jiol  cause.  The 
term  '  understanding  '  includes  all  the  varied 
activities  of  mind  which  do  not  fall  into  the  pre- 
ceding categories,  suc^h  as  perception,  concep- 
tion, association,  abstraction,  deductive  or  in- 
ductive reasoning,  etc. 

The  primary  law  of  the  sensibilities  is  the 
law  of  necessity.  By  this  is  meant  that  the 
mind  is  so  constructed  that  certain  feelings  result 
necessarily  from  the  presentation  of  the  objects 
to  which  they  correspond.  Appetite  for  food  is 
instinctive  or  natural.  But  this  law  needs  to 
be  supplemented  by  another,  to-wit,  that  it  is 
within  the  power  of  man's  will  to  control  both 
the  exercise  or  indulgence  of  these  sensibilities, 
and  the  disposition  or  state  of  heart  on  which 
man's  susceptibilities  and  affections  largely  de- 


150  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   I.ANE. 

pend.  Hence,  while  on  the  one  hand  there  is  in 
the  action  of  the  sensibilities  an  element  of  con- 
stitutional necessity,  there  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  voluntary  element  which  correlates  them  to  the 
divine  law. 

Dr.  Allen's  treatment  of  theWill,  which  is  of  a 
special  and  elaborate  character,  is  a  hne  example 
of  masterly  analysis.  The  preference  is  given  to 
this  definition  :  Will  is  the  power  of  an  alterna- 
tive election.  The  classification  of  choices  is  an 
important  section  of  the  discussion.  They  are 
divided  into  three  classes  :  (  1 )  Generic,  the 
act  of  the  soul  determing  the  chief  end  of  its 
being.  (2)  Specific,  the  executive  volitions 
by  which  the  abiding  preference  is  expressed 
and  carried  out.  (3)  Irregular,  such  as  have 
no  obvious  connection  with  the  governing,  and 
may  be  in  confliict  with  the  generic.  Here  be- 
long the  bad  actions  of  good  men,  or  the  rela- 
tively good  actions  of  bad  men. 

But  what  is  the  relation  of  the  will  to  the 
other  powers  of  the  mind  ?  To  the  intellect  it 
stands  related  thus  :  There  must  be  an  intel- 
lectual apprehension  of  an  object  of  choice. 
To  the  sensibilities  thus  :  The  object  appre- 
hended by  the  intellect  must  affect,  move  the 
sensibilities  to  or  from  itself.  The  sensibilities 
are  thus  the  link  between  the  intellect  and  the 
will,  the  channel  of  influence,  motive  power, 
from  the  one  to  the  other.  This  combined 
action  of    the   mind    and    sensibility    constitutes 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  151 

what  is  commonly  called  a  motive  to  a  choice, 
understanding  by  motive — in  the  language  of 
Edwards,  "all  that  which  moves,  excites,  or  in- 
vites the  mind  to  volition." 

The  strength  of  the  motive  depends  on  a  va- 
riety of  considerations  ;  the  nature  of  the  object 
presented,  the  condition  of  the  intellect  and  of 
the  sensibilities,  the  governing  or  generic  pur- 
pose, etc.  The  motive,  however,  is  the  occasion, 
the  condition  of  the  mind's  action,  not  the  pro- 
ducing cause  of  the  choice.  Here  Dr.  A. 
breaks  with  necessitarianism.  The  will,  in  re- 
sponding to  the  motive,  is  left  free.  There  is  no 
compulsion,  no  such  necessity  as  rules  in  the 
realm  qf  matter.  The  essential  idea  which  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  responsibility,  is  the  power 
of  alternative  choice  in  respect  to  one's  own 
end  of  being,  ( generic  choice  ).  The  idea  of 
this  liberty  is  a  simple  and  necessary  idea,  hav- 
ing, indeed,  like  all  sim.ple  and  necessary 
ideas,  its  chronological  antecedent,  to-wit, 
the  consciousness  of  conflicting  claims,  or 
of  the  conflicting  influence  of  different  mo- 
tives or  desires.  The  reality  of  the  idea  is 
attestedby  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility, 
the  testimon}'  of  Scripture,  and  that  of  con- 
sciousness. 

My  limits  will  not  permit  even  a  summary 
of  Dr.  A. 's  masterly  analysis  of  the  relation  of 
motive  to  the  action  of  the  will.  Suffice  it  to 
state  briefly  the  leading  points. 


152  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

We  recognize  in  the  history  of  moral,  re- 
sponsible action,  the  following  stages  : 

First  stage :  The  antecedents  :  partly  ex- 
ternal, objective,  furnishing  the  occasion,  and 
the  material  of  the  motive  ;  partly  subjective, 
psychological,  conditioning  the  strength  of  the 
motive,  its  moving^  power. 

Second  stage  :  The  response  of  the  mind  : 
the  movement  of  the  sensibilities,  accompanied 
by  a  comparison  and  balancing  between  the 
claims  of  the  object  with  those  of  its  opposite. 

Third  stage-.  The  final,  decisive  act  of 
choice.  In  respect  to  this  choice,  note  the  fol- 
lowing points  : 

(1).  The  antecedents  of  choice  are  substan- 
tially the  same  in  all,  lying  as  they  do  on  one 
side  in  the  inherent  qualities  of  the  objects  of 
choice,  their  attractiveness,  their  adaptations 
to  our  appetencies  and  needs,  in  a  word,  their 
moving  power,  and  on  the  other  side  in  the 
psychological  conditions  of  the  agent. 

(2).  The  connection  between  the  motive 
and  the  responsive  action  of  the  mind  is  accord- 
ingly that  of  antecedent  and  consequent,  and  par- 
takes of  the  quality  of  law  in  the  uniformity, 
universality  and  certainty  of  its  operation. 

(3).  The  connection,  however.  Is  that  of  an- 
tecedent and  consequent,  having  for  its  exponent 
certainty  ;  not  that  of  cause  and  effect,  having  for 
its  exponent  necessity.  However  uniform  and 
certain  the  result,  the  mind  acts  as  an  indepen- 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  153 

dent,  self-determining  agent,  always  reserving  to 
itself  the  power  and  right  of  making  the  alter- 
native choice.  Without  this  there  can  be  no 
such  freedom  as  makes  responsibility  intelligible 
or  possible. 

These  positions  are  fundamental  and  of  su- 
preme importance,  as  we  shall  see  at  the  central 
and  vital  points  of  the  system.  Before  leaving 
them  let  me  call  special  attention  to  this  entire 
scheme  of  Mental  Philosophy  as  definitive  of  the 
broad,  thoroughgoing  and  consistent  Calvinism 
of  the  Theology  in  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  certainty  on  the  one  side,  correlating 
human  actions  to  the  decretive  will  of  God,  and 
in  the  emphasis  laid  on  the  principle  of  freedom 
and  responsibility  on  the  other,  correlating  hu- 
man actions   to  the  preceptive  will  of  God. 

Dr.  Allen's  Moral  Philosophy  is  no  less 
carefully  and  skillfully  elaborated,  and  no  less 
closely  wrought  into  the  very  marrow  of  his  sys- 
tem. I  can  only  touch  on  two  or  three  points. 
The  question.  What  is  Right  ?  is  answered 
in  two  ways  : 

( 1 ).  Right  in  the  abstract  is  defined  to  be 
"that  quality  of  moral  acts  which  excites  the 
feeling  of  oughtness  or  obligation,  which  calls 
forth  the  mind's  approbation,  and  excites  the 
the  emotion  of  complacency  and  pleasure,  and 
gives  rise  to  the  idea  ot  good  desert." 

(2).  Right  in  the  concrete  is  defined  to  be 
Love.    The  arcrument  to  establish  this  conclusion 


154  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

is  (whether  it  be  deemed  absolutely  satisfactory 
or  no)  certainly  the  strongest  I  have  ever  met 
with,  displaying  the  keenest  psychological  in- 
sight, and  pregnant  with  practical  significance. 
The  question,  What  is  Conscience?  is  at 
the  close  of  a  long  and  profound  analysis  thus 
answered :  Conscience  is  a  complex  term 
under  which  are  comprehended  the  following 
facts  of  our  moral   nature  : 

1.  The  intuitive  apprehension  of  the  right- 
ness  of  benevolence  in  the  broadest  sense. 

2.  The  feeling  of  oughtness  or  obligation 
to  be  benevolent. 

3.  The  feeling  of  complacency  or  remorse, 
pleasure  or  pain,  in  view  of  one's  self  as  being  or 
not  being  benevolent. 

The  real  intention  and  use  of  conscience, 
thus  defined,  is  pronounced  to  be  simply  to 
correlate  the  human  mind  to  the  law  of  God,  to 
link  intelligence  and  virtue  together,  to  bind 
man  with  God.  The  judgment  may  be  at  fault 
in  particular  instances  in  determining  what  the 
law  of  love  may  require  or  prohibit  ;  but  what- 
ever is  believed  to  be  so  required  or  forbidden 
is  of  binding  force,  felt  to  be  such.  Thus 
conscience  binds  man  to  virtue  and  to  God.  A 
law  designed  to  bind  all  created  mind  together, 
and  all  to  God,  the  Creator,  would  be  of  no 
use  unless  Its  binding  force  were  recognized. 
There  must  be  that  in  the  mind  on  which  law  fas- 
ns,    with  which    it    can  grapple.      There   must 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF  LANE.  155 

be  correlation  as  of  loadstone  to  iron.  So  con- 
science correlates  free  mind  to  the  law  of   God. 

The  whole  discussion  of  conscience  and  of 
morals  is  the  product  of  a  master  mind,  moving 
with  the  ease  of  conscious  power  in  the  realm 
of  the  central,  eternal  principles  of  the  divine 
government,  and  of  the  laws  and  facts  of  human 
nature  ;  and  is  throughout  intended  and  calcu- 
lated to  establish  the  absolute,  eternal,  immut- 
able factors  of  God's  government,  to  account 
for  the  relative,  the  phenomenal,  the  variable  in 
human  nature  and  experience  ;  to  correlate  man's 
moral  being  to  God's  law,  to  justify  duty,  to 
maintain  and  quicken  the  sense  of  responsibility, 
to  illustrate  the  process  of  sin  and  salvation,  and 
to  vindicate  the  claims  of  God  to  unconditional 
obedience,  as  these  claims  are  urged  upon  us 
through  nature,  consciousness  or  revelation, 
through  law  or  gospel. 

In  considering  the  execution  of  God's  plan 
in  government,  the  interest  of  the  treatment 
centres  in  the  moral  administration  of  the  plan. 
Here  the  New  England  elements  of  the  system 
come  into  special  prominence.  Dr.  Taylor's 
impress  is  noticeable,  although  some  of  that  great 
theologian's  leading  theories  and  conclusions 
are  vigorously  and  successfully  contested.  The 
following  positions  are  laid  down  as  funda- 
mental: 

"  Law  must  be  maintained  by  appropriate 
and  adequate  sanctions.      The  sanctions    of    law 


156  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

are  the  rewards  of  obedience  in  the  form  of  en- 
joyment, and  the  penalties  of  disobedience  in 
the  form  of  suffering." 

*'The  character  or  measure  of  the  sanctions 
of  law  depends  on  the  importance  of  the  ends 
at  which  government  aims.  If  those  ends  are 
of  infinite  value,  then  the  rewards  must  be  im- 
measurably precious,  and  the  penalties  immeas- 
urably dreadful." 

"It  follows  that  the  reward  due  to  obedience 
is  perfect  happiness  while  obedience  continues." 

"It  follows  also  that  the  penalty  of  disobe- 
dience must  be  perfect  and  endless  misery. 
Nothing  less  can  express  God's  estimate  of  the 
end  he  seeks."  And  here  we  have  the  true 
measure  of  the  ill-desert  of  sin. 

Dr.  Allen's  hamartology  is  at  once 
speculatively  philosophical  and  profound,  and 
concrete,  psychological,  practical.  Dogmatic 
refinements  and  subleties  are  brushed  aside  like 
so  many  cobwebs,  and  the  realities  of  the  situ- 
tion  are  grasped  and  set  forth  with  a  firm  hand. 
Note  the  following  statements  : 

"Objectively  :  As  related  to  law,  sin  is  the 
voluntary  transgression  of  it.  As  related  to 
God,  it  is  a  personal  affront  to  his  authority  ;  it 
is  opposition  to  his  personal  character  ;  it  is  re- 
volt from  his  service. 

"Subjectively  :  Sin  is  the  abiding  prefer- 
ence of  the  soul  for  what  law  forbids,  or  the 
abiding  opposition  of  the  soul  to    what    the    law 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  157 

requires.      Or,  in  its   concrete  torm,  sin  is   self- 
ishness." 

In  discussing  guilt,  the  emphasis  comes  not 
on  the  legal  sense  of  the  term  as  represented  by 
the  Latin  reus^  but  on  the  moral  ;  subjectively, 
as  the  reaction  of  sin  on  the  sinner  himself  in  the 
personal  conviction  of  wrong  doing  ;  objectively, 
as  the  conviction  of  a  wrong  done  to  God, 
carrying  with  it  still  further  the  obligation  to 
sustain  law  by  rendering  satisfaction,  or  in  other 
words,  by  enduring  punishment.  Its  measure 
has  already  been  given  in  the  measure  of  ill- 
desert. 

In  treating  of  punishment,  Dr.  Allen  ad- 
heres throughout  to  the  strict  judicial  sense  of 
the  term  as  suffering  inflicted  for  the  trans- 
gression of  law,  by  proper  authority,  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  a  judicial  sentence,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  sustaining  and  honoring  the  law. 

In  this  strict  sense  punishment  is  not  ad- 
ministered in  this  life,  regarded  as  a  period  of 
gracious  probation.  The  penalty  is  suspended 
for  all  by  the  Atonement  ;  the  sufferings  of  the 
present  are  disci-plinary^  not  penal. 

Dr.  Allen's  rip-id  insistence  on  these  defini- 
tions  of  guilt  and  punishment  was  signiflcant  of 
certain  essential  features  of  his  theologic  think- 
ing, as  e,  g.: 

(1).  His  aversion  to  a  theology  which 
could  not  be  preached,  and  commended  to  men's 
consciences. 


158  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    T.ANE. 

(2).  His  conviction  that  a  double  sense  of 
fundamental  terms  in  ethics  and  religion,  where- 
in the  secondary  sense  involves  not  only  a  de- 
parture from  the  primary,  but  to  some  extent  a 
contradiction  of  it,  can  only  work  confusion  and 
mischief. 

(3).  His  belief  that  the  above  definitions 
are  essential  to  a  true  appreciation  of  the  tragic 
fact  of  suffering  in  God's  universe,  and  of  its 
relation  to  sin  : 

a.  On  the  part  of  men  in  this  life — disci- 
plinary, to  purify  from  sin. 

b.  On  the  part  of  Christ — sacrificial,  to 
atone  for  sin,  by  furnishing  a  divine  expression 
or  measure  of  the  ill-desert  of  sin,  which  con- 
stitutes an  equivalent  of  the  expression  or  meas- 
ure of  ill-desert  furnished  by  the  endless  suffer- 
inors  of  the  transgrressor. 

c.  On  the  part  of  the  lost — penal,  to  pun- 
ish sin. 

The  historical  aspects  of  the  fall  are  con- 
sidered appropriately  under  the  head  of  the  ex- 
ecution of  the  divine  plan  in  moral  government. 
In  this  connection  the  divine  permission  of  evil 
receives  attention.  While  the  essentially  insol- 
uble character  of  the  problem  is  fully  recog- 
nized, Dr.  Allen  is  inclined  to  the  statement 
that  evil  is — not  as  Bellamy  and  others  say, 
necessary — but  incidental  to  the  wisest  adminis- 
tration  of  a  moral  system. 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  159 

The  second  ^reat  division  of  the  course  in- 
troduces us  to  God   as  Redeemer. 

Here  first  we  have  the  ground  of  the  possi- 
bility of  Redemption  in  the  Trinity,  which  leads 
to  the  examination  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
and  in  particular  of  the  person  and  work  of 
Christ. 

In  considering  the  work  of  Redemption, 
our  attention  is  directed  first  to  the  disease  or 
the  condition  of  the  race  in  consequence  of  the 
fall.  Throughout  the  discussion  the  emphasis 
is  laid  on  the  facts  of  Scripture  and  of  consci- 
ou^^ness,  rather  than  on  human  speculations. 
The  first  sin  was  an  act  of  free  self-detei'mina- 
tion.  -It  consisted  in  the  choice  of  self  rather 
than  God,  as  the  end  of  the  life.  It  was 
thus  a  generic,  permanent  choice,  decisive  of 
character  and  of  destiny.  It  brought  our  first 
parents  under  the  condemnation  of  the  law,  and 
under  the  power  of  selfishness  (self-indulgence), 
through  the  derangement  of  the  sensibilities. 

The  fall  having  taken  place,  it  was  open  to 
God  to  execute  the  sentence  of  death  at  once. 
But  he  suspended  the  sentence,  inaugurated  at 
once  a  system  of  Redemption,  introduced  a  new 
form  of  probation,  not  legal  as  the  former,  but 
gracious,  under  which  the  curse  of  sin  becomes 
disciplinary,  especially  under  the  reinforcing 
stimulus  of  the  hope  inspired  by  grace. 

But  Adam's  fall  involves  his  posterity. 
The  race  becomes   depraved.      Two   great  laws 


160  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

co-operate  to  bring  about  this  result  :  The  law 
of  descent — "like  begets  like,"  and  here  Dr. 
Allen  is  a  Traduciaiiist — and  the  law  ®f  social 
liability.  These  two  laws  suffice  to  account  for 
the  facts,  and  meet  all  the  requirements  of 
Scripture  teaching  on  the  subject.  The  Mani- 
cheanism,  which  derives  sin  from  matter  ;  the 
Realism,  which  attributes  universal  depravity 
to  generic  identity  with  Adam  ;  the  Federalism, 
which  puts  imputation  before  depravity  ;  the 
Transcendentalism,  which  locates  the  fall  in  a 
timeless  pre-existence — all  these  theories  are 
subjected  to  a  rigorous  examination,  and  rejected 
on  scriptural  and  philosophical  grounds  ;  and 
universal  depravity  is  referred  to  the  laws  of 
heredity  and  the  social  solidarity  of  the  race. 
The  depraved  nature  which  we  inherit  from  our 
first  parents  implies  a  diseased  personal  and 
social  organism,  the  beclouded  intelligence  and 
the  deranged  sensibilities,  which,  as  anteced- 
ents of  volition,  re-enforced  by  the  moral  chaos 
of  the  social  environment,  ensure  for  each  and 
for  every  one  the  choice  of  self  as  the  first,  gen- 
eric, abiding  choice  which  determines  character 
and  destiny. 

After  a  careful  analysis  of  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  deseased  condition,  we  are 
brought  to  the  remedy — the  work  of  the  Re- 
deemer, as  Prophet,  Priest  and  King.  The 
interest  here  centres  in  Christ's  work  as  Priest, 
or  the  iVtonement,  of  which  the    foUovvinor    oren- 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  161 

eral  statement  is  given  :  "The  x\tonement  is  a 
government  transaction,  having  immediate  refer- 
ence to  the  power  and  authority  of  moral  gov- 
ernment in  view  of  the  suspension  of  penalty, 
or  offer  of  pardon,  and  the  bestovvment  of 
pardon  on  certain  conditions.  Its  immediate 
object  is  to  sustain  the  law  and  government  of 
God  in  another  way  than  by  executing  the  pen- 
alty on  the  transgressor.  It  does  this  by  means 
of  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  execution  of  the  penalty,  through 
the  influence  of  those  sufferings  and  that  death 
on  the  sinner  himself  an^  upon  the  universe." 
It  should  be  added  that  in  Dr.  Allen's  intention 
this  definition  includes  the  satisfaction  of  justice, 
justice  being  the  divine  attribute  specially  con- 
cerned with  the  upholding  of  law  and  government, 
so  that  whatever  secures  that  end  satisfies  justice. 

The  necessity  of  the  Atonement  is  proved 
from  the  fact  of  its  institution,  from  the  necessi- 
ties of  law  and  government,  from  the  require- 
ments of  God's  justice,  from  the  requirements 
of  his  benevolence,  from  the  demands  made  by 
the  greatest  good  of  the  universe,  and  is  con- 
firmed by  the  workings  of  conscience,  by  the 
experience  of  the  race,  and  by  the  teachings  of 
Scripture. 

The  universality  of  the  Atonement  is  argued 
from  Scripture,  from  its  nature  and  design,  from 
its  relations  to  the  universal  benevolence  of 
God,  who  loves  all,  desires  the  salvation  of    all, 


162  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

has  provided  an  Atonement  to  nnake  salvation 
possible  for  all,  who  offers  salvation  to  all, 
who  applies  the  motive-power  of  the  Atone- 
ment to  persuade  all  to  accept  this  offer, 
who,  on  the  ground  of  the  Atonement,  has 
already  suspended  the  penalty,  instituted  a 
gracious  probation  for  all,  bestows  on  all  the  in- 
fluences of  his  Spirit,  through  whom  he  draws 
all  to  himself,  leaving  the  responsibility  of  not 
coming  to  him  on  the  man  himself.  The  Atone- 
ment being  the  condition  of  all  this  universal 
provision  of  grace  is  of  necessity  universal. 
The  alls  of  the  gospel  are  emphasized  through- 
out with  special  earnestness  and  love. 

The  consideration  of  the  conditions  of  the 
bestowal  of  the  blessings  of  the  Atonement  leads 
to  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith.  The 
discussion,  I  need  not  say,  is  clear  and  evange- 
lical, but  needs  no  special  reference  here. 

The  application  of  the  atoning  work  of  Christ 
brings  before  us  first,  the  Agent — the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  Plan — Election.  It  is  most  in- 
teresting to  note  that  Dr.  Allen,  besides  decis- 
ively rejecting  Supra-lapsarianism,  prefers  to 
the  ordinary  Infra-lapsarianism,  which  regards 
Election  as  subsequent  to  the  Fall,  a  third  theory 
which  might  be  characterized  as  Sub-infra- 
lapsarianism,  which  regards  Election  as  coming 
not  after  the  Fall  but  also  after  the  Atonement, 
and  as  designed  "  to  honor  the  atoning  work 
of  Christ    by    giving  [and    securing]  to    him     a 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  163 

reward  of  his  sufferings."  Election  is  thus  pre- 
eminently an  outcoming  of  Love — the  love  of 
the  Father  for  the  Son  blending  with  the  Divine 
Love  for  the  elect.  The  definition  given  of 
Election  is  accordingly  this  :  "By  Election  we 
understand  that  God,  having  from  eternity  pur- 
posed to  provide  a  Savior  for  the  human  family, 
and  foreseeing  that  not  one  of  them  self-moved 
would  accept  of  him,  determined  to  exert  upon 
a  certain  portion  of  them  by  his  Holy  Spirit 
such  influences  as  would  certainly  and  infallibly 
result  in  their  repentance  and  faith  and  per- 
severance unto  eternal  life  ;  and  that  in  the 
Covenant  of  Redemption  these  were  given  to 
Christ  as  the   reward  of  his   sufferings." 

In  discussing  the  ground  or  reason  of  Elec- 
tion, not  only  are  we  referred  to  the  sovereignty 
of  God  and  to  his  purpose  to  manifest  his  glory 
in  all  that  he  decrees  and  does,  but  also  to  the 
great  characteristic  of  the  system  of  Redemp- 
tion as  operating  through  Jesus  Christ.  Elec- 
tion, as  already  defined,  is  the  purpose  to  render 
the  Atonement  effectual  in  the  case  of  those 
who  are  given  to  Christ.  Election  and  Atone- 
ment both  centre  in  Christ.  Both  are  made 
effectual  through  the  same  means  of  grace— 
the  agency  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  instrumentality 
of  the  truth.  Both  aim  at  the  same  result — 
holiness.  Hence,  while  we  know  not  what  the 
reasons  of  election  are,  we  may  well  believe 
that  they  are  associated  in  the  Divine  Mind  with 


164  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

the  workings  of  the  scheme  of  redemption. 
We  locate  them  in  redemption  rather  than 
law.  The  number  of  the  elect,  according  to 
Scripture,  is  immensely  large. 

The  actual  application  of  atonement  takes 
place  by  regeneration,  which  is  thus  defined  :  "A 
radical  change  of  a  man's  character,  produced 
by  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  which,  from 
being  supremely  selfish  and  therefore  totally 
sinful,  he  begins  to  love  God  supremely,  and 
therefore  begins  to  be  holy."  The  character  of 
this  great  change  is  considered,  the  agency  of 
the  Spirit  as  involving  the  application  of  truth, 
and  the  control  of  antecedent  influences  and 
conditions  determining  the  will,  so  as  to  insure 
the  result  without  impairing  man's  liberty,  the 
homiletic  use  of  the  doctrine — all  these  and  re- 
lated points  are  discussed  con  aniore.  I  doubt 
whether  any  department  of  theology  enlisted  Dr. 
A.'s  heart  so  thoroughly  as  this.  His  analytic 
psychologism,  his  doctrinal  evangelicalism,  and 
his  practical  revivalism,  found  here  their  largest 
and  finest  scope.  This  remark  will  also  include 
the  discussion  of  sanctification,  or  the  Christian 
life. 

The  remainder  of  the  course  was  devoted 
to  "The  Result  of  Christ's  Atoning;  work  :  or, 
Christ  as  King"  :  embracing  Ecclesiology  and 
Eschatology,  and  need  not  specially  detain  us 
now. 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  165 

Let  me  under  a  few  heads  emphasize  the 
distinctive  features  of  the  theology  of  which  a 
sketch  has  been  thus  attempted  : 

1.  It  was  a  logical  unit,  a  complete  organic 
whole. 

2.  Its  organizing  principle  was  Dr.  A.'s 
philosophy — fundamentally  that  of  Reed,  with 
large  modifications  from  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton  and 
Cousin,  in  less  measure  from  Coleridge,  but 
chiefly  from  Dr.  A.  himself. 

3.  A  mediating  influence  was  constantly 
exerted  by  his  teaching — in  that  he  was  always 
careful  to  point  out  how  divergent  views  in  the- 
ology were  largely  due  to  the  application  of 
varying   philosophies. 

4.  His  method  was  thoroughly  inductive, 
a  -p^'iori  assumptions  or  reasonings  being,  for  the 
most  part,  carefully  eschewed. 

5.  The  data  of  its  inductions  were  mainly 
biblical.  The  number  of  passages  cited  as 
proof-texts  was  extraordinary.  Nor  was  the 
lecturer  content  with  referring  to  them.  There 
was  no  small  amount  of  exegesis,  and  the  final 
impression  received  was  a  scriptural  O.  E.   D. 

6.  The  data  of  consciousness  were  also 
largely  utilized.  Hence,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
theology  is   pre-eminently  psychological. 

7.  While  the  system  was  thus  thoroughly 
and  profoundly  philosophical,  it  was  at  the  same 
time  singularly  popular  and  practical.  Abstrac- 
tions, technicalities,  artificialities  were  as  much 


166  THIRTY    YEARS    IN   LANE. 

as  possible  put  aside.  It  was  characteristically 
a  theology  of  common  sense.  A  sly  query  in 
the  vein  of  Socrates,  a  shrewd  maxim  or  jest  in 
the  style  of  Benj.  Franklin,  would  prick  many 
a   theological  bubble. 

8.  While  Dr.  Allen's  culture  was  by  no 
means  narrow,  his  theology  was  by  far  rather  the 
product  of  individual  thinking  than  of  extensive 
reading. 

9.  While  strong  on  the  intellectual  side,  it 
was  a  theology  of  the  heart  quite  as  much  as  of 
the  intellect.  The  vital  connections  of  theology 
and  experience  were  never  overlooked.  His 
logic  often  melted  in  tears.  Christianity  in  the 
system  is  far  more  than  a  creed,  it  is  a  relig- 
ion. 

10.  Scarcely  more  is  it  a  theology  of  the 
intellect  and  of  the  heart  than  a  theology  of 
the  conscience.  The  idea  of  right  is  every- 
where pivotal  :  in  God  and  in  man,  in  govern- 
ment and  in  redemption. 

11.  It  is  characteristically  a  revival  theol- 
ogy, fitted  to  be  an  inspiration  rather  than  an 
incubus  in  a  season  of  religious  interest,  and  to 
help  the  preacher  both  to  awaken  and  to  deal 
with  a  spirit  of  anxious  inquiry. 

12.  At  the  same  time  it  is  a  theology  of  edi- 
fication, eminently  adapted  to  promote  growth  in 
the  knowledge  and  grace  of  Christ,  and  to  inspire 
the  activity  of  that  love  which,  according  to  it,  is 
the  Alpha  and  the  Omegcvof  the  Christian  religion. 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  167 

The  third  incumbent  of  the  theological  chair 
was  Dr.  Henry  A.  Nelson,  who  entered  upon 
his  duties  early  in  1868.  It  should  be  said  here 
that,  for  two  years  previous  to  the  retirement  of 
Dr.  Allen,  he  had  been  so  far  disabled  as  to  need 
assistance  in  his  work.  That  assistance  was 
rendered  in  1866,  and  again  in  1867,  by  Dr. 
Henry  Smith,  Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  from 
1855,  with  two  intervals,  until  his  death  in  Jan- 
uary, 1879.  On  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Beecher 
in  1851,  Dr.  Smith  had  been  invited  to  become 
the  Professor  of  Theology,  and  was  eminently 
fitted  as  a  scholar  and  teacher  to  give  instruction 
in  that  department,  as  well  as  in  the  chair  to 
which  he  was  called  four  or  five  years  later. 
Educated  in  New  England,  versed  in  that  type 
of  Calvinistic  doctrine  which,  originating  with 
Jonathan  Edwards,  was  represented  in  his  youth- 
ful days  by  men  like  Dwight  and  Emmons,  he 
had  framed  for  himself  a  theological  system 
which  he  held  tenaciously,  and  which  under 
favorable  conditions  he  might  have  set  forth  here 
with  commanding  power.  One  who  knew  him 
well  (Rev.  President  Tuttle ),  has  said  of  Dr. 
Smith  as  a  theologian  : 

"My  judgment  ma}^  be  partial,  but  to  me  he 
seemed — by  his  intellectual  endowments  and 
learning,  his  rigid  analytic  and  logical  habits, 
his  fidelity  to  truth,  especially  as  revealed  in 
the  Bible,  his  great  eloquence,  as  well  in  the 
class-room  as  in  the  pulpit,  his  magnetic   enthu- 


168  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

siasm  in  what  he  taught,  and  also  in  teaching 
it,  and  withal  the  supreme  crown  of  all  his 
qualities,  his  devout  piety — by  all  these  he  seemed 
to  me  to  have  qualifications  for  the  department 
of  theology  of  the  highest  order.  Eminent  as 
he  was  in  other  departments  of  education,  he 
would  have  proved  himself  preeminent  in  this." 
Though  Dr.  Smith  left  behind  him  no  printed 
expositions  of  his  system,  those  of  us  who  list- 
ened to  his  series  of  discourses  on  the  moral 
law  and  the  moral  government  of  God,  can  well 
appreciate  the  justice  of  this  exalted  estimate. 

Dr.  Nelson  came- into  the  Seminary  from  a 
pastoral  care  of  twenty-two  years,  in  two  exten- 
sive and  important  parishes.  He  brought  with 
him  into  this  new  sphere,  as  Dr.  Beecher  had 
done,  those  warm  and  practical  conceptions  of 
Christian  theology  which  would  naturally  arise 
in  any  active  and  earnest  mind  under  the  influ- 
ence of  such  an  experience  as  the  actual  minis- 
try ciffords.  Trained  in  Auburn  Seminary  by  one 
of  the  most  vigorous,  acute,  systematic  and  philo- 
sophical teachers  of  our  Church  (Dr.  Hickok, ) 
he  had  also  learned  by  thoughtful  experiment 
in  how  many  ways  the  teaching  of  the  school 
must  be  modified  and  moulded  afresh  in  order 
to  adjust  it  to  the  needs  of  the  pulpit  and  the 
pastoral  work.  His  own  mind  had  long  been 
chiefly  interested  in  such  modes  of  stating  and 
illustrating  gospel  doctrine  as  proved  themselves 
valuable  in  persuading  sinners,  edifying  saints, 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  169 

instructing  and  developing  the  Church.  And 
herein  appeared  that  special  usefulness  which  se 
largely  characterized  his  work  here.  In  other 
words,  his  success  lay  mainly  in  the  fact  that, 
drawing  from  such  a  well  of  personal  experi- 
ence, he  was  enabled  to  send  his  pupils  out  into 
the  great  field,  well  supplied  with  the  body  and 
substance  of  the  Gospel  in  forms  immediately 
available  in  the  pulpit.  Following  one  who  had 
never  filled  the  pastoral  office,  as  he  in  turn  had 
followed  a  great  preacher  and  an  eminent  pas- 
tor, Dr.  Nelson  may  be  said  to  have  completed 
the  symmetry  of  Lane  theology,  and  given  per- 
manence and  worth  to  it  as  a  theology  for  the 
people,  Dr.  Allen  had  indeed  preached  much, 
labored  much  and  successfully  in  revivals,  and 
had  imparted  to  his  pupils  in  a  rare  degree  a 
a  type  of  doctrine  which  they  could  preach,  and 
preach  with  power.  To  his  successor  it  was 
given  to  take  up  essentially  the  sanie  doctrinal 
system,  and  so  to  clothe  it  with  argument  and 
illustration,  and  so  to  emphasize  it  with  the  re- 
sults of  large  observation  and  of  earnest  per- 
sonal reflection  upon  divine  things,  as  to  make 
it  still  more  available  in  the  myriad  exigencies 
of  the  pastoral  sphere. 

Those  who  have  read  the  brief  treatise  of 
Dr.  Nelson,  published  since  his  retirement,  and 
entitled  Sin  and  Salvation,  will  readily  appre- 
hend both  the  substance  of  his  system,  and  the 
forms  in  which  he    specially  delighted  to  frame 


170  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

it.  Its  practical  presentation  of  sin  as  an  act, 
sin  as  a  state  of  the  soul,  sin  as  a  disease  for 
which  man  can  provide  no  remedy,  sin  as  an 
inheritance,  involving  guilt  and  the  doom  of 
separation  from  God  even  in  this  life,  and  ulti- 
mately an  eternal  banishment  from  His  pres- 
ence, is  both  clear  and  strong.  In  this  treatise 
the  author  takes  no  decisive  position  respecting 
the  various  Calvinistic  theories  of  sin  and  guilt 
as  associated  with  the  Adamic  transgression, 
though  he  evidently  prefers  the  Edwardean  view 
of  a  divine  constitution  of  things,  by  which  sin- 
fulness flows  down  by  natural  processes  through 
the  blood  and  life  of  the  race.  His  main  stress, 
however,  like  that  of  Beecher  and  Allen,  is  upon 
that  personal  element  which  is  essential  in  all 
sin — upon  that  immediate  form  of  guiltiness 
which  involves  not  only  exposure  to  retributive 
consequences,  but  also  individual  criminality. 
The  entire  treatise  may  be  described  as  a  thor- 
oughly Calvinistic  statement  of  the  essential 
facts  in  the  case,  not  so  much  for  the  eye  of  the 
speculative  theologian,  but  rather  in  their  living 
relation  to  the  needs  of  the  preacher. 

In  like  manner  the  correlative  fact  of  sal- 
vation is  presented  as  primarily  an  act,  an  act 
often  varying  in  its  aspects  and  conditions,  but 
always  spiritual  in  substance  ;  an  act  wrought 
through  the  energies  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  work- 
ing upon  and  within  the  sinful  and  corrupt  soul. 
The  author  follows  the  example  of  Chalmers  in 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  171 

dwelling  much  on  sin  as  a  disease,  and  on  the 
mediatorial  work  of  Christ  as  a  remedy,  includ- 
ing deliverance  from  delusion  and  disorder  as 
well  as  guilt,  and  involving  a  loving  return  to 
God  through  the  ministries  of  the  Spirit,  and  a 
complete  and  everlasting  union  with  him  in 
glory.  The  full  divinity  of  the  Mediator,  the 
greatness  and  preciousness  of  his  mediatorial 
work,  the  worth  and  scope  of  the  atonement  as 
adequate  to  meet  every  demand  of  redemption, 
the  freeness  of  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  the 
consequent  applicability  and  universality  of  the 
gospel,  are  clearly  and  strongly  stated,  though 
always  in  language  and  imagery  that  harmonize 
with  the  practical  aim  in  view.  Had  Dr.  Beech- 
er  or  Dr.  Allen  prepared  a  volume  under  such 
a  title  and  with  such  an  aim,  it  would  have  been 
very  much  what  this  admirable  treatise  is.  It 
may  be  they  would  have  laid  less  stress  on  sin 
as  a  vttiu7n,  and  more  on  sin  as  a  cidfa — would 
have  been  somewhat  more  inclined  to  set  forth 
the  strictly  personal  elements  in  sin,  and  its  con- 
sequent criminality,  and  somewhat  less  disposed 
to  see  sin  in  its  deeper  organic  forms,  .  as  a 
quality  of  human  nature  from  which  all 
actual  transgressions  do  proceed.  Yet  the 
differences  would  have  been  theoretical  and 
secondary  ;  the  harmony  is  fundamental,  is 
complete.  The  voices  of  the  teachers  might 
differ  in  tone  and  volume,  but  the  utterance 
is    one. 


112 


THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 


It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Reunion,  of 
which  this  occasion  is  in  part  commemorative, 
occurred  within  eighteen  months  after  Dr.  Nel- 
son commenced  his  theological  work.  As  one 
of  the  conspicuous  minds  in  one  branch  of  the 
Church,  he  had  been  summoned  while  still  a 
pastor  to  a  special  service  in  connection  with 
that  union.  He  watched  every  stage  of  the  pro- 
cess with  assiduous  and  sympathetic  interest, 
and  when  the  event  occurred,  his  vote  and  his 
heart  were  in  it.  No  hand  grasped  more  cor- 
dially the  spade  with  which,  on  that  November 
day,  we  planted  the  Reunion  elm  on  these 
grounds,  and  no  one  entered  more  trustfully  than 
he  on  the  new  alliance  then  formed.  He  saw 
instantly  how  indispensable  to  its  success  the 
confidence  of  all  parties  in  each  other  must  be  ; 
how  much  must  be  overlooked,  how  much  must 
be  borne  with,  how  much  must  be  patiently 
moulded  into  form,  if  the  union  was  indeed  to 
be  a  permanent  and  blessed  thing.  He  espe- 
cially saw  that  in  the  teaching  of  theology  for 
the  common  Church,  with  its  accepted  varieties 
of  stating  and  illustrating  the  common  Calvin- 
ism, it  was  incumbent  on  the  teacher  to  be  thor- 
oughly irenical  in  his  expositions — to  lay  less 
stress  than  before  on  the  differences,  and  empha- 
size his  own  specialties  of  opinion  less  tenaciously, 
and,  above  all,  never  to  indulge  in  such  polemic 
tempers  as  not  infrequently  manifested  them- 
selves on  both  sides  in  the  old  days  of  division. 


THE   TlIEOLO(iIANS    OF   T.ANE.  173 

At  the  same  time  he  had  no  principles  to  con- 
ceal or  to  sell,  and  no  compromises  to  make  ; 
he  consented  to  no  sacrifice  of  valuable  historic 
traditions,  here  or  elsewhere.  He  held  that  the 
grand  old  elm  which  had  been  planted  on  this 
hill,  should  be  and  remain  an  elm  still,  and  that  it 
was  absurd  to  wish  it  an  oak,  a  maple  or  a  hick- 
ory. In  his  judgment,  it  was  better  for  every 
interest  concerned  that  it  should  stand  as  before, 
a  graceful  elm,  with  its  sturdy  trunk,  its  broad 
branches  and  its  welcoming  shades,  in  the  wide 
landscape  of  our  common  ancestral  domain, 
while  hickories  and  maples  and  oaks  give  min- 
gled variety  and  beauty  to  the  scene,  and,  at 
their  own  sweet  will,  grow  and  prosper  where- 
ever  the  good  hand  of  the  Master  may  have 
planted  them. 

Fifteen  years  and  more  have  passed  since 
Dr.  Nelson  returned  to  his  loved  work  in  pul- 
pit and  parish,  and  the  present  incumbent  was 
transferred  from  another  department  to  this  re- 
sponsible and  difficult  position.  His  study  and 
teaching  of  Church  History,  and  especially  of 
the  History  of  Christian  Doctrine,  during  the 
seven  years  preceding,  had  in  some  measure 
prepared  him  to  pass  over  into  this  new  depart- 
ment with  some  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  ser- 
vice to  be  rendered,  but  also  with  a  keen  sense 
of  the  perplexities  and  exposures  involved  in 
such  a  transplantation.  In  general,  his  task 
was  simply  to  carry   on,  in  their  spirit  and  with 


174  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

like  strenuous  endeavor,  the  work  whicli 
Beecher  and  Allen  and  Nelson  had  for  more 
than  forty  years  been  prosecuting.  The  master 
hand  of  the  first  great  architect  had  laid  broad 
and  deep  foundations  for  a  theological  system  ; 
the  second  had  elaborated  the  structure  with 
more  of  scientific  method  and  philosophic  pre- 
cision, and  with  wider  adaptations  ;  the  third 
had  contributed  to  its  completeness  by  such  ad- 
ditions and  adjustments  as  a  long  and  success- 
ful pastorate  would  supply.  But  three  things 
remained  to  be  undertaken,  in  order  that  the 
theological  edifice  should  become,  in  the  fine 
phrase  of  Tennyson, 

*         *  *  "a  tower  of  strength, 

That  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew," 

Of  these  three  things,  the  first  grew  out  of 
certain  current  aspects  and  movements  of  unbe- 
lief which  have  made  themselves  specially  mani- 
fest during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
through  which  the  common  Christianity  has 
seemed  to  be  exposed  to  new  and  strange  perils. 
Skepticism  has  apparently  been  gathering 
strength  for  a  fiercer  onset,  not  against  any 
specific  element  of  the  Gospel  or  any  particular 
class  or  system  of  doctrine,  but  against  the  in- 
nermost citadels  of  our  holy  faith.  It  has  hurled 
special  challenges  at  Christianity  in  respect  to 
the  character  and  administration  of  God,  to  his 
relations  to  the  universe    natural    and  moral,   to 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF    LANE.  175 

the  proofs  of  his  existence,  to  the  fundamental 
facts  of  his  supernatural  and  supreme  personal- 
ity. It  has  denied  or  questioned  the  possibility 
of  our  knowing  anything  concerning  divine 
things,  the  validity  of  human  reasonings  in  the 
sphere  of  theology  the  nature  and  offices  of  the 
human  conscience,  the  fundamental  fact  of  im- 
mortality. It  has  assailed  the  Christian  theories 
as  to  the  origin  of  man  and  the  material  uni- 
verse, has  resolved  all  law  and  order  into  blind 
and  characterless  force,  has  affirmed  that  there 
is  no  pre-determined  outcome  to  humanity  or 
the  world,  and  that  the  only  alternative  is 
either  an  endless  succession  with  no  consum- 
mation anywhere,  or  perchance  a  pitiless  catas- 
trophe in  which  man  and  the  universe  shall  go 
down  together  into  some  eternal  abyss  of  noth- 
ingness. It  has  challenged  the  possibility  of 
revelation,  spurned  the  Christian  evidences, 
declared  miracle  and  prophecy  to  be  delusions, 
and  scouted  at  the  fundamental  truth  of  an  in- 
spiration from  God  into  the  heart  and  life  of 
men.  In  a  word,  unbelief  has  shifted  its  whole 
line  of  battle,  and  assailed  Christianity  by 
methods  more  radical,  by  postulates  more  de- 
structive, than  any  heretofore  known  in  the  long 
struggle  of  the  ages.  And  he  who  would  be  a 
faithful  teacher  of  theology  in  the  presence  of 
such  an  emergency,  must  of  necessity  concern 
himself  relatively  less  with  that  which  has  been 
elaborated  so  well  by  those  who  have  gone   be- 


176  THIRTY    YEARS    IN   LANE. 

fore  him,  and  become  more  extensively  an  apo- 
logist for  the  Gospel.  He  must  devote  himself 
with  special  zeal  to  the  defense  of  those  great 
and  fundamental  verities  of  religion,  without 
which  there  can  be  no  Christian  theology  of 
any  sort.  In  such  an  age  as  this,  the  exposition 
of  the  profound  Analogy  of  Bishop  Butler,  how- 
ever brilliant,  would  be  insufficient.  Man  as  a 
being  rational  and  spiritual,  and  therefore  cap- 
able of  theologizing  ;  nature  in  all  her  wonders 
of  phenomenon  and  law  and  cosmic  energy, 
bearing  her  living  testimony  to  something  be- 
yond herself  ;  God  as  a  Personal  Being,  proved 
to  exist  in  his  supremacy  and  his  perfection  by 
lines  of  argument  that  can  not  be  broken  ;  Reve- 
lation as  a  true  communication  from  God  to 
man,  and  having  in  it  the  core  of  all  knowledge, 
the  sum  of  all  hope,  the  pledge  and  assurance 
of  an  eternal  salvation  ;  these  are  the  great  un- 
derlying verities  with  which  a  wise  and  faithful 
teacher,  be  he  Calvinist  or  Lutheran  or  Armin- 
ian,  must  first  and  chiefly  concern  himself  in 
this  age.      If  these  are  lost,  all  is  lost! 

A  second  special  task  to  be  attempted  in 
this  chair  appeared  in  the  providential  necessity 
for  a  broader  exposition  of  the  system  of  theo- 
logy here  taught,  in  its  very  interesting  rela- 
tions to  the  faith  and  teaching^  of  the  universal 
Church.  One  who  has  learned  to  appreciate 
the  grand  organic  developments  of  Christian 
thought  as   they  appear  through   the   ages — who 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  177 

sees    how   amid    a    thousand  varieties    and   con- 
flicts the  one  sublime  unfolding  has  gone  on  and 
on  toward  some  glorious  unity,  to  be  attained  at 
last  in  belief  as  truly  as  in  life,  could   never  be 
content  with  the   mere   enunciation    of    his    own 
personal  or  provincial  speciality,  as  if  that  con- 
tained   the    entire    and    the    completed    Gospel. 
Every  student    of    Church    History  knows    how 
disastrous  to  the  best  interests  of    Protestantism 
for    the    last   hundred  and  fifty  years  have   been 
the    wranglings    of    theologians,     the    strifes    of 
schools  and  sects,  growing  out    of    the    failures 
to    appreciate    each    other    in    this     broad     and 
irenic  way.     In  this  clear  and  happier  age  such 
isolated     and     provincial     exposition     of    divine 
things  is  no  longer  to   be    justified.      Nothing  il"^ 
clearer  now  than  the  fact  that  no  man  can  fully 
comprehend    or    utilize    his  own   system  of  doc- 
trine, until  he  has  studied  it  under  the  revealing 
and  rectifying  lights  which  such  cosmic  investi- 
gation flashes  down  upon  it — until  he   puts  it  to 
the  crucial   tests  which  the  organic    thought    of 
the  whole  Church  of  God  on  earth  supplies.   As 
no  one  could  comprehend  the  noble   symbols  of 
Westminster     until    he    examined    them    in    the 
light  shed  upon  both  their  substance    and    their 
language  by  the  antecedent  creeds  of    the    Re- 
formation, so  one  who  is  set  for    the    exposition 
of  any  specific  type  of  the  Protestant  Theology, 
must  measurably  and   perhaps   sadly  fail   in    his 
task  so  long  as  he  is  absorbed  and  centered  in 


178  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

that  type,  as  a  silkworm  in  its  web.  To  see  the 
particular  system  in  its  general  relationships, 
and  to  interpret  what  is  specific  by  what  is  uni- 
versal ;  strengthening,  modifying,  correcting  and 
expanding  the  particular  teaching  in  whatever 
wav  these  broader  relationships  suggest,  is  a 
fundamental  condition  of  safe,  healthful,  fruitful 
jheologizing,  at  least  in  our  times.  If  the  par- 
ticular teaching  is  wrong  or  narrow,  defective 
in  quality,  or  erroneous  in  tendency,  such  com- 
parative investigation  makes  the  fact  as  palpa- 
ble as  the  day,  and  leads  the  teacher  either  to 
abandon  his  task  in  despair,  or  to  search  with 
an  agonizing  earnestness  for  some  worthier  con- 
ception of  the  common  Gospel.  On  the  other 
hand,  these  comparative  studies  may  enable 
him  to  see,  as  never  before,  how  thoroughly 
truthful  his  cherished  system  is — how  tender  and 
gracious  are  its  affiliations  with  all  other  evan- 
gelical systems — and  how  safely  and  ardently 
he  may  proclaim  it  in  his  appointed  place  as 
containing  in  essence  and  substance,  not  only 
what  his  own  denomination  or  school  may  hold, 
but  the  glorious  Gospel  in  whose  light  all  indi- 
vidual types  of  doctrine  are  harmoniously  cen- 
tered. To  teach  theology  under  the  benign  in- 
fluence of  such  considerations  as  these,  is — as  a 
happy  experience  certifies  to  me — a  privilege 
immeasurably  superior  to  any  Avhich  the  inten- 
sest,  narrowest,  most  pugnacious  little  dogma- 
tizer  on  earth  can  enjoy. 


THE    THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  179 

The  third  and  last  special  task  which 
seemed  to  devolve  upon  the  present  instructor  in 
theologv  has  been  already  suggested  ;  it  was 
found  in  the  new  obligations  springing  out  of 
the  historic  union  of  1869.  He  who  would  be  a 
teacher  of  the  whole  Church  at  such  an  inter- 
esting and  critical  juncture  in  its  history,  must 
of  course  adjust  his  teaching  to  these  peculiar 
conditions.  There  was  indeed  little,  if  any- 
thing, in  the  Lane  Theology  to  be  thrown  aside 
in  consequence  of  that  union  ;  but  there  were  di- 
rections in  which  what  was  held  and  taught  in 
each  Seminary  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be 
harmoniously  correlated  to  what  was  held  and 
taught  elsewhere.  Antagonisms  of  a  formal 
sort  were  to  be  abandoned  ;  difference's  in 
method  and  statement  were  to  be  minimized 
and  harmonized  ;  each  point  of  recognizable 
unity  was  to  be  conserved  ;  and  that  in  which 
all  were  agreed,  was  to  be  pressed  everywhere 
into  the  front.  This  was  to  be  done,  even  at 
the  hazard  of  seeming  to  be  in  some  particulars 
indifferent,  if  not  disloyal  to  the  original  system 
represented  by  the  teacher.  It  was  to  be  done 
even  if  the  process  should  sometimes  be  misin- 
terpreted as  suggestive  of  incapacity  or  tending 
to  indefiniteness  or  vagueness  in  the  teaching  ; 
it  was  to  be  done  even  if  it  was  sometimes  de- 
nounced by  those  who  were  more  zealous  for 
some  favorite  dogma  than  for  the  peace  and 
unification  of  the  Church, 


180  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

Such  a  course  was  also  indispensable  to 
success  in  the  training  of  a  body  of  ministers, 
who  should  be  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  and  with  the  temper  of  the  reconciled  de- 
nominations. For,  a  student  taught  to  know 
nothing  else  than  the  i-psissima  verba  of  some 
tenacious  and  litigious  old  theologian,  who  re- 
gards nothing  as  of  value  but  what  he  himself 
holds  and  teaches,  can  become  nothing  but  a 
young  and  narrow  dogmatist  after  all,  either 
growing  narrower  and  more  bitter  like  his  mas- 
ter as  he  grows  old,  or  waking  up  at  last  to  find, 
that  his  own  little  system  is  not  the  whole  of 
things  as  he  supposied  it  to  be,  and  that  he  him- 
self has  no  raison  cV ctre  as  a  minister  in  such  a 
«  Church  as  ours,  at  such  a  magnificent  period  in 
its  history.  That  church  needs  no  men  of  this 
class  in  her  pulpits.  The  more  carefully  and 
widely  her  young  men  can  be  trained  in  her 
institutions  to  see  divine  things  in  broad  rela- 
tionships as  history  reveals  them,  and  to  see 
them  also  as  the  living  cords  and  ligaments  by 
which  a  great  church  like  oui's  is  to  be  held  in 
unity  through  the  generations,  the  more  secure 
will  such  unity  be,  and  the  stronger  will  the 
Church  become  for  her  appointed  work  in  the 
world. 

If  there  has  been  any  appreciable  diflerence 
between  the  present  and  the  past  instruction  in 
theology  in  this  Institution,  that  difference  has 
manifested  itself  in  these    three    directions    and 


THE   THEOLOGIANS    OF   LANE.  181 

for  these  three  ends.  If  there  has  been  any 
change  of  aspect  or  color  in  that  theology,  it 
has  become  more  rather  than  less  Calvinistic, 
as  the  teacher  has  meditated  with  an  ever-deep- 
ening interest  on  those  great  problems  respecting 
God  and  his  purposes  and  administration,  and  re- 
specting man  in  his  fallen  and  lost  yet  salvable 
condition,  around  which  the  profoundest  thought 
of  the  Church  has  in  all  ages  been  centered. 
The  conclusion  of  such  meditations,  carried  on 
through  many  years  under  the  illumination  of 
the  Word  of  God  and  in  the  ligrht  which  the 
history  of  Christian  thought  supplies,  is  that  no 
other  system  of  theology  proposed  by  man  em- 
bodies the  essential  truth  of  Scripture  so  well 
as  that  formulated  in  our  own  church  symbols, 
and  that  the  Church  needs  no  other  theological 
equipment  for  its  great  work  in  the  world,  if 
only  that  system  be  broadly,  generously,  ration- 
ally set  forth  in  her  seminaries  and  her  pulpits. 
How  well  this  task  has  been  done  here  during 
the  past  fifteen  years,  and  in  the  presence  of 
some  peculiar  embarrassments,  it  will  remain 
for  another  hand  to  narrate.  For  the  present  it 
is  enough  to  see  that  the  theology  of  Lane  has 
been  one  theology  from  the  beginning  until  now, 
with  no  essential  principle  or  element  sacrificed, 
though  with  steadily  widening  scope  and  aim, 
as  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  the  needs  of  the 
united  Church,  going  out  on  its  grand  mission 
to  humanity,  have  demanded.      The  essence  and 


182  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

substance  have  been  unchanged,  though  the  one 
doctrine  may  have  assumed  some  new  aspects, 
and  caught  a  fresh  coloring  under  the  special 
conditions  which  have  been  named. 

As  the  present  reverently  carries  the  past 
in  its  bosom,  it  may  also  stand  as  a  sure  pro- 
phecy of  the  future.  It  is  an  authenticated  fact 
that  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Melancthon, 
his  successor  in  the  chair  of  theology  at  Witten- 
berg, on  an  occasion  when  the  authority  of 
Melancthon  was  appealed  to,  tore  down  from 
the  wall  the  portrait  of  the  great  reformer,  and 
trampled  it  under  foot  in  the  presence  of  the  as- 
semblage. It  is  hardly  to  be  fancied  that  the 
fifth  occupant  of  the  same  chair  in  Lane  should 
turn  these  speaking  faces  of  Beecher  and  Allen 
to  the  wall  before  proceeding  with  his  work  of 
instruction  in  the  place  they  occupied  so  well. 
The  man  who  could  dream  of  such  wretched 
treachery  as  that,  might  well  remember  that  the 
name  of  Melancthon  grows  more  precious  with 
the  centuries,  while  the  world  has  long  ago  for- 
gotten the  writings  and  the  name  of  Leonard 
Hutter.  The  present  stands  as  a  sure  prophecy 
of  the  future,  and  we  may  confidently  antici- 
pate that  through  many  a  decade  the  substantial 
Calvinism  taught  here  from  the  beginning  until 
now  will  continue  to  be  taught,  though  we  may 
hope  with  ever-widening  adaptations,  and  in 
forms  more  and  more  comprehensive,  more  and 
more  full  of  power  and  of  grace. 


VI. 


Rev.  Diarca  Howe  i^llei)^  S.  T.  D. 


A  PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  LANE  CLUB. 


DECEMBER  13,  1887 


The  devotion  of  this  day  to  the  fitting  task 
of  commemorating  the  life  and  the  labors  of  one 
who  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  in 
various  relations  served  this  Institution  with  re- 
markable fidelity  and  skill,  has  my  profoundest 
sj^mpathy  ;  and  I  esteem  it  a  peculiar  privilege 
to  add  my  testimony  to  that  already  given,  re- 
specting both  what  he  did  and  what  he  was  for 
so  long  in  a  relationship  which  has  now  for 
nearly  eighteen  years  been  terminated  by  death. 

My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Allen  began 
more  than  thirty  years  ago,  shortly  after  I  came 
as  a  pastor  to  Ohio,  That  acquaintance  was 
broadened  into  both  deep  respect  and  warm 
friendship  on  my  part  as  the  following  decade 
brought  us  in  ways  which  need  not  now  be  de- 
tailed into  closer  connection  here  and  elsewhere. 
Once  during  that  decade  (1864-65)  it  was  my 
pleasant  task  to  give  some  instruction  in  the 
Seminary,  while  he  was  still  here  in  the  height 
of  his  activity  and  usefulness  as  a  Professor. 
Subsequently  in  1867,  I  shared  with  the  other 
trustees  in  receiving,  with  universal  regret,  his 
resignation  from  active  service,  and  in  confer- 
ing  on  him  the  honor  of  that  emeritus  relation 
which  he  sustained  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life.      When    three    years    later,    that    life     had 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.    ALLEN.  185 

reached  what  seemed  to  all  who  knew  and 
loved  him  too  early  and  too  sad  a  close,  it  be- 
came my  duty  to  share  with  others  in  the  touch- 
ing services  over  his  remains.  And  now 
for  thirteen  years,  I  have  sat  in  the  chair  of  in- 
struction which  he  filled  so  well,  and  have  in 
my  humble  measure  been  inculcating  the  same 
type  of  doctrine,  and  seeking  to  train  success- 
ive generations  of  young  men  for  that  ministry 
of  grace  of  which  he  was  so  fine  an  example. 
Why  should  I  not  share  therefore  with  his  own 
pupils  as  a  friend  among  friends,  in  the  loving 
and  reverential  services  in  which  we  are  this 
day  engaged? 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak  of  Dr.  Allen 
as  a  teacher,  since  those  who  were  privileged 
to  know  him  more  intimately  in  that  capacity 
have  already  said  so  much  and  so  well.  I  may 
only  add  that,  standing  as  he  did  in  such  direct 
succession  to  that  great  prince  among  preach- 
ers and  genius  among  instructors,  Lyman  Beech- 
er,  he  has  held  a  less  prominent  place  in  the 
public  estimate,  than  in  my  judgment  he  de- 
served, since  he  obviously  had  some  high  quali- 
ties as  a  teacher  which  his  distinguished  prede- 
cessor did  not  possess,  and  since  the  value  of  his 
work  has  now  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  been 
fully  proved  by  the  tlieologic  excellence  and  the 
marked  efficiency  in  Christian  work  of  those 
who  from  1851  to  1867,  enjoyed  the  thorougli 
instruction     which     he     alwa_ys    aimed    to   give. 


186  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

Neither  will  I  attempt  at  this  time  to  speak  at 
length  of  what  Professor  Allen  was  as  a  man, 
though  the  memory  of  his  welcoming  counte- 
nance, of  his  benignant  eye,  of  his  genial  man- 
ners, of  his  finely  blended  gentleness  and  firm- 
ness, of  his  catholicity  of  feeling  mingled  with 
sturdy  conviction,  his  devotion  to  all  good 
causes,  and  his  unaffected  and  healthful  piety, 
lives  as  truly  in  me  as  in  any  among  those 
who  sat  at  his  feet  in  the  class-room,  or  gained 
inspiration  from  him  through  closer  relation- 
ship. I  need  only  to  say  now  that  in  him,  in  a 
degree  which  is  rare  even  among  Christians, 
the  true,  the  beautiful  and  the  good — that  PI0- 
tonic  triuity  in  character — were  singularly 
blended.  I  trust  that  the  influence  of  his  holy 
manhood,  as  well  as  of  his  clear  and  sound  in- 
structions, may  long  be  felt  within  these  sacred 
walls. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  most  fitting  that  I 
should  speak  at  this  commemorative  service 
of  the  more  general  relations  of  Dr.  Allen  to 
Lane  Seminary  during  the  seven  and  twenty 
years  of  his  connection  with  it, — realizing  mean- 
while with  tender  pain  how  rapidly  the  recol- 
lection of  the  most  strenuous  and  valuable  ser- 
vices of  the  most  earnest  man,  in  any  sphere 
however  elevated,  passes  out  of  mind  and  is 
lost  appreciably  even  by  those  who  are  enjoying 
the  very  advantages  which  it  cost  him  so  much 
to  secure.     And  I   may   add    that    there  is  some 


MEMORIAL    OF   DR.    ALLEN.  18? 

special  reason  for  turning  your  attention  in  this 
direction  at  this  time  ;  first,  because  the  ac- 
knowledged excellence  of  the  man  and  the 
teacher  have  in  some  degree  crowded  this  more 
general  service  into  the  background  of  popular 
vision  ;  and,  secondl}^  because  it  may  well  be 
questioned  whetlier  even  the  greatest  work  of 
Dr.  Allen  did  not  lie  within  this  more  external, 
yet  less  noticeable  field  of  activity.  Certainly, 
what  for  more  than  twenty  years,  with  patience, 
with  wisdom,  with  unselfish  ardor  and  cour- 
age, he  did  for  this  Seminary,  to  strengthen 
its  foundations,  to  conserve  and  increase  its  re- 
sources, to  build  up  every  material  interest — in 
a  word^  to  keep  it  alive  in  a  time  of  great  ad- 
versity and  peril,  may  well  be  ranked  by  us 
among  the  greatest  services  of  his  consecrated 
and  useful  life.  This  oreneral  work  let  me  en- 
deavor  briefly   to    sketch. 

The  withdrawal  of  Dr.  Beecher  after  nearly 
eighteen  years  of  labor  and  trial,  accompanied 
as  it  was  by  the  almost  simultaneous  resignation 
of  Professor  Stowe,  brought  on  a  serious  crisis 
in  the  history  of  Lane.  Dr.  Beecher  was  then 
in  his  seventy-fifth  year,  and  his  great  powers, 
physical  and  mental,  had  begun  to  give  way 
under  the  enormous  strain  to  which  they  had  long 
been  subjected.  He  had  fought  a  hard  theolog- 
ical battle,  running  through  many  years,  and 
not  with  unvarying  success.  His  work  as  a 
teacher  had   from   the    first    been    greatly    inter- 


188  THIRTY    YEARS    IN   LANE. 

rupted  by  the  multifarious  labors  of  a  city  pas- 
torate, and  by  much  other  public  ministration  in 
both  the  west  and  the  east,  and  also  by  the  con- 
stant effort  to  sustain  the  Institution  on  its  finan- 
cial side,  even  to  the  extreme  of  raising  his  own 
salary  year  after  year.  As  his  powers  began 
to  decline,  his  ability  both  to  draw  students  and 
to  hold  and  instruct  them,  began  to  fail  also. 
Some  degree  of  disaffection,  growing  mainly  out 
of  the  impoverished  condition  of  the  treasury, 
increased  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.  Pro- 
fessor Stowe  and  his  family  shared  in  the  de- 
pression which  spread  itself  as  a  gra}^,  wintry 
cloud  over  the  sky.  And  when  the  trying  ex- 
perience culminated  in  the  resignation  of  two 
such  teachers,  both  eminent  in  the  country  at 
large,  there  was  left  in  the  faculty  but  one  man, 
and  he  not  quite  forty-two  years  of  age,  and 
hardly  ten  years  a  professor,  on  whose  shoulders 
the  whole  future  of  the  institution,  in  almost 
every  respect,  seemed  to  be  cast. 

The  vacant  chair  of  theology  was  offered  to 
at  least  two  men  ;  the  Reverend  Robert  W. 
Patterson,  D.D.,  an  alumnus  of  the  Seminary, 
who  had  already  made  a  name  for  himself  both 
as  a  theologian  and  as  a  wise  man  of  affairs,  and 
the  Reverend  Henry  Smith,  D.  D.,  then  presi- 
dent of  Marietta  College.  After  they  had  each 
declined  the  pt)sition.  Professor  Allen  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  vacated  place  from  his  first  sphere 
as  a  teacher  in  sacred  rhetoric.      The  Reverend 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.     ALLEN.  189 

George  E.  Day,  D.D.,  now  of  the  Yale  Divin- 
ity School,  was  at  the  same  time  elected  to  the 
chair  of  biblical  literature,  which  he  occupied 
for  the  fifteen  years  subsequent  ;  and  Reverend 
Jonathan  B.  Condit,  D.D.,  was  cliosen  professor 
of  sacred  rhetoric — a  position  which  he  held  for 
four  years  until  1855,  when  he  resigned  to  ac- 
cept a  similar  chair  in  the  Theological  Semin- 
ary in  Auburn,  New  York.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Dr.  Henry  Smith,  who  then  consented  to  ex- 
change the  college  presidency  for  the  place  thus 
vacated.  In  this  way  the  crisis  was  satisfactorily 
met,  SQ  far  as  the  filling  of  vacancies  was  con- 
cerned ;  but  the  numerous  changes  brought  in 
their  natural  results  in  smaller  classes,  in  scan- 
ty resources,  in  diminishing  influence  and  fruit- 
fulness,  and  in  some  other  special  forms  of  trial.  A 
period  of  relative  depression  followed,  daring 
which  trustees  and  alumni  and  friends,  as  well 
as  teachers,  were  at  times  much  burdened  with 
solicitude — a  solicitude  made  the  harder  to  bear 
sometimes  by  indifference  and  even  opposition 
from  the  outside.  An  earnest  and  partially  suc- 
cessful effort  to  improve  the  financial  situation  was 
perhaps  the  brightest  event  of  the  period.  It 
was  not  long  before  the  civil  war  broke  like  a 
cyclone  upon  the  Seminary,  as  upon  the  coun- 
try, frustrating  all  hope  of  progress,  and  for  a 
time  even  imperiling  existence.  I  need  not 
speak  in  detail  of  the  events  of  the  trying  decade 
from  1855  to  1865,   when   the    internecine    strife 


ISO  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

was  ended.  I  allude  to  them  only  for  the  op- 
portunity of  saying  that  during  that  eventful 
period,  Lane  Seminary  seemed  to  stand  on 
the  patience,  the  energy,  the  wisdom  and  faith- 
fulness of  one  man,  far  above  all  others.  Dr. 
Allen  was  the  rock  on  which  the  whole  struc- 
ture, not  in  the  class-room  so  much  as  in  all  the 
various  departments  of  administration,  within  and 
without,  appeared  primarily  to  rest. 

To  account  for  this  fact,  we  must  recur  to 
the  action  of  the  Board  of  Trust,  as  early  as 
April,  1844,  which  made  Professor  Allen,  then 
but  thirty-six  years  of  age,  and  four  years  a 
teacher  here.  Superintendent  of  Seminary  prop- 
erty and  business,  as  the  resolution  of  appoint- 
ment stated  it.  Under  this  resolution  he  was 
required  to  take  charge  of  all  the  property  of 
the  institution  and  superintend  the  collection  of 
rents,  the  leasing  of  lands,  the  sale  of  the  ceme- 
tery lots,  the  repairs  of  the  buildings  and  fences, 
the  making  of  all  needful  improvements,  the 
supervision  of  the  boarding-house  and  lodging 
apartments,  and  all  other  matters  naturally  com- 
ing under  the  care  of  such  an  officer  ;  and  was 
required  also  to  report  to  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Board  on  all  these  matters  once  in 
three  months.  And  at  the  same  meeting  he  was 
also  appointed  in  connection  with  Dr.  Beecher 
to  solicit  funds  in  this  city  and  other  places  in 
the  West  for  the  payment  of  pressing  claims 
against  the  Seminary,  and  to  make  such  arrange- 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.    ALLEN.  191 

ments  with  its  creditors  as  would  postpone  their 
claims,  if  they  could  not  be  relinquished  or 
liquidated. 

Such  was  the  language  of  the  resolution 
which  laid  so  heavy  a  burden  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  young  Professor.  Although  the  vener- 
able Gabriel  Tichenor,  one  of  the  earliest  and 
best  friends  of  the  Institution,  was  nominally 
the  Treasurer,  the  practical  care  and  use  of  the 
funds  fell  from  this  time  chiefly  into  the  hands 
of  Dr.  Allen.  How  difficult  and  delicate  the 
task  was,  it  would  be  hard  for  anyone  at  this 
day  to  describe.  The  salaries  of  the  three  in- 
structors was  but  $1,000  each,  and  the  expendi- 
tures, all  told,  were  hardly  one-fourth  of  what 
they  became  in  later  periods.  Yet  the  records 
of  the  Board  for  many  years  after  1844,  as  well 
as  before  that  date,  show  painfully  how  embar- 
rassed the  Trustees  were,  and  how  inconven- 
ienced were  the  Professors,  and  how  scant  was 
the  financial  equipment  at  every  point.  The 
efforts  of  Dr.  Beecher  and  others,  includino- 
some  financial  agents,  to  raise  money  east  and 
west,  were  constant,  and  often  far  from  success- 
ful ;  and  notes  and  loans  secured,  and  other  forms 
of  obligation  incurred,  took  too  often  the  place 
of  the  hard  cash  necessary  to  round  out  well 
each  trying  year.  Moreover,  the  general  ex- 
penses naturally  increased  from  time  to  time  ; 
the  salaries  of  the  teachers  were  raised  to  $1,- 
500,  and  each    increase    brought  its  added  bur- 


192  THIRTY   YEARS  IN   I.ANE. 

den.  A  floating  debt  was  thus  created,  and 
carried  along  year  after  year,  at  what  we  would 
now  regard  as  exorbitant  rates  of  interest  ;  and 
when  Drs.  Beecher  and  Stowe  retired,  they  car- 
ried away  with  them  legal  papers  representing 
large  balances  due  them  on  salary  and  for  other 
claims.  Six  or  seven  years  later  this  aggregated 
indebtedness  ranged  between  $15,000  and  $20,- 
000  ;  while  the  Institution  was  unable  with  the 
scant  resources  at  its  command,  even  to  pay 
the  interest  required — to  say  nothing  of  provid- 
ing for  the  first  dollar  of  the  immense  principal 
justly  due  to  teachers,  trustees,  and  other  pa- 
tient creditors. 

In  all  this  long  struggle  with  poverty  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  Professor  Allen  as 
superintendent  and  business  manager,  was  the 
chief  factor.  For  eleven  of  these  years  he  and 
Gabriel  Tichenor,  the  nominal  treasurer,  con- 
ducted these  financial  affairs  together  and  in 
per^ct  harmony  ;  and  after  the  death  of  Mr. 
Tichenor,  Mr.  Robert  Boal,  an  honored  elder  in 
Cincinnati,  became  treasurer  for  a  brief  period, 
who  was  followed  by  good  Anthony  H.  Hinkle, 
another  elder  in  one  of  our  city  churches,  and  one 
of  the  best  friends  that  any  institution  ever  had. 
So  complete  had  the  confidence  of  all  in  Dr. 
Allen  become  that,  as  Mr.  Hinkle  once  told  me, 
he,  although  a  treasurer  in  form  in  order  to 
comply  with  the  requirements  of  the  charter, 
had  never  himself  handled  the  funds,  but  had 
left  the    administration  wholly  in  the    hands    of 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.     ALLEN.  193 

the  superintendent,  contenting  himself  with  the 
signing  of  the  report  at  the  end  of  each  finan- 
cial year.  It  was  the  superintendent  to  whose 
faithful  hands  the  entire  interest  was  thus  practi- 
cally entrusted,  and  on  whom  the  strain  and  the 
trial  fell.  That  all  acquiesced  and  rejoiced  with 
him  in  what  he  did,  and  without  jealousy,  without 
severe  criticism,  without  any  questioning  of  his 
motives,  cheered  him  on  in  such  service  year 
by  year,  is  a  fact  which  it  is  pleasant  even  at 
this  distant  date  to  mention.  That  even  he  had 
occasion  sometimes  to  realize  how  keen  a  thing 
the  tooth  of  ingratitude  is,  and  how  sharp  a  pang 
it  sends  through  the  soul  when  the  best  that  one 
can  do  is  harshly  or  ungenerously  censured, 
must  also  be  confessed.  But  the  beautiful  fact 
in  the  case  remains,  that  he  went  straight  on, 
straight  on  to  the  end,  filling  a  sphere  which  no 
one  else  could  have  filled  so  well.  For  the  sake 
of  acquainting  myself  more  exactly  with  the 
financial  history  of  the  Seminary  during 
that  period,  I  once  read  his  annual  reports, 
more  than  twenty  in  number,  carefully  through 
and  through, — learning  much  which  I  could 
never  otherwise  have  known,  and  learning 
above  all  to  appreciate  as  never  so  fully  before 
the  practical  wisdom,  the  tireless  activity,  the 
Christian  fidelity  of  the  mind  that  drafted  them. 
And  I  venture  here  to  testify  that  these 
faithful  records  of  a  consecrated  life  have  taught 
me  lessons  and  inculcated  duties  and  stirred  up 


194  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

aspirations  which  have  been  and  are  a  constant 
stimulus  in  the  work  which  the  Master  has 
assigned  to  me  in  this  sacred  place. 

One  prominent  feature  in  the  financial  pol- 
icy of  the  Seminary  during  this  period  has  often 
been  criticized, — the  leasing  of  its  lands  in  per- 
petuity, and  with  no  provision  for  the  increase 
of  the  annual  rental.  But  Dr.  Allen  was  not 
responsible  for  that  feature,  even  if  the  plan 
could  be  shown  to  be  wrong.  He  found  it  here, 
and  carried  it  on  as  he  found  it,  and  in  such  a 
way  as  to  mitigate  its  evils,  so  far  as  this  was 
practicable.  He  enforced  the  salutary  regula- 
tions which  were  incorporated  in  each  lease  ; 
he  weeded  out  worthless  tenants,  he  enhanced 
the  value  of  the  lands  and  secured  to  the  Sem- 
inary a  more  steady  and  reliable  income  from 
this  source.  But  it  may  safely  be  said  furth- 
er, that  the  policy  itself  was  the  only  one  in 
vogue  in  the  city  and  region  at  the  time,  and 
especially  that  it  was  the  only  policy  that  could 
have  kept  the  Institution  alive  during  the  first 
thirty  or  forty  years  of  its  existence.  It  may 
be  added  also,  that  the  Board  of  Trust  has 
never  been  able  to  improve  upon  that  policy,  and 
that  the  very  year  after  Dr.  Allen  resigned,  it 
leased  nearly  all  its  remaining  landed  possess- 
ions in  the  same  way.  Nor  is  it  unlikely  that 
in  the  long  future  this  mode  of  investment  may 
be  seen  to  have  been  the  best  and  safest  possi- 
ble ;  even  now  it  is  probably  better  than  the  in- 


MEMORIAL    OF   DR.    ALLEN.  195 

vesting  of  permanent  funds  in  transient  bonds  and 
mortages,  or  in  dwellings  always  needing  re- 
pair, and  certain  after  awhile  to  pass  into  decay. 
I  have  sometimes  heard  what  seemed  tn  me 
inconsiderate  criticism  of  one  feature  in  the 
administration  for  which,  as  I  have  been  led  to 
think,  Professor  Allen  was  himself  responsible 
— the  leasing  of  a  considerable  section  in  the 
northeast  corner  of  the  Seminary  land  to  colored 
tenants.  It  is  possible  that  if  he  had  foreseen 
all  the  practical  results  of  that  experiment  as 
they  have  been  developed  within  the  last  twenty 
years,  he  would  have  hesitated  to  enter  into  such 
an  arrangement.  But  it  is  to  be  said  that  his 
plan  was  repeatedly  approved  by  the  Board, 
and  was  continued  by  the  Board  after  he  had 
ceased  to  act.  It  is  also  to  be  said  that  the  in- 
come derived  from  such  leases  is  quite  as  great 
in  proportion  to  the  real  value  of  the  land  leased 
as  that  obtained  from  any  other  like  contract: 
that  for  twenty  years  the  accruing  rents  have 
been  as-  well  paid,  and  that  the  income  from 
this  source  has  contributed  no  small  share  to 
the  annual  expenditures.  And  if  the  moral 
outcome  in  the  way  of  developing  the  temper 
of  industry  and  frugality  and  temperance  among 
this  class  of  tenants,  has  not  been  all  that  the 
generous  and  hopeful  heart  of  the  Superintendent 
anticipated,  still  the  presence  of  schools  and 
churches  on  this  land,  and  other  like  results,  should 
at  least  go  far  toward  the  justifying  of  his  course. 


196  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

How  much  Dr.  Allen  did  personally  in  the 
way  of  increasing  the  Seminary  resources,  it 
would  be  impossible  at  this  late  date  to  say  ; 
like  many  another  Christian  effort  in  this  world, 
its  only  record  is  on  high.  What  I  have  chanced 
to  know  has  led  me  to  the  opinion  that  the  ag- 
gregated results  of  such  endeavor  on  his  part 
were  quite  large.  I  have  alread}^  alluded  to 
the  fact  that  in  1857-1858  he  was  conspicuous  in 
an  earnest  effort  to  raise  $50,000  in  order  to  meet 
current  expenses,  to  pay  teachers,  to  erect  a  Li- 
brary Hall,  to  endow  the  library,  and  to  subserve 
SDme  other  important  ends.  For  nearly  two 
years  two  agents,  Reverend  Henry  Little,  D.D., 
and  Reverend  W.  M.  Cheever,  were  engaged 
with  him  in  this  movement  ;  and  it  may  be  said 
that  substantial  success,  thougrh  not  all  that  had 
been  hoped  for,  crowned  their  exertions.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  it  was  his  hand  that  wrote  the  ear- 
nest and  vigorous  pamphlet  now  in  my  posses- 
sion, setting  forth  the  needs  of  the  Institution, 
and  pleading  effectively  for  sympathy  and  help. 
And  without  detracting  in  any  degree  from  the 
credit  due  to  others,  whether  teachers  or  trustees, 
I  feel  myself  justified  in  saying  that  it  was  he 
more  than  any  others  who  for  two  long  de- 
cades gathered  together  the  means  which 
carried  the  Seminary  on, —  if  indeed,  es- 
pecially during  the  dark  years  of  the  civil  war, 
he  did  not  actually  preserve  it  from  financial 
extinction. 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.    ALLEN.  197 

It  would  be  a  deli^rht  to  me  to  enter  on  this 
commemorative  occasion  much  more  into  detail 
as  to  this  general  work  for  Lane  in  which  Dr. 
Allen  was  so  long  and  thoroughly  engaged. 
But  I  must  forbear,  although  it  pains  me  to 
think  that  in  a  little  while  such  recital  of  details 
by  any  one  will  become  forever  impracticable. 
I  have  long  coveted  the  privilege  of  saying  what 
I  have  now  said,  and  shall  count  one  of  the  du- 
ties of  my  life  done,  now  that  I  have  been  per- 
mitted to  lay  this  brief  but  just  tribute  upon  his 
tomb.  And  I  have  been  the  more  anxious  to 
speak  in  this  way  of  his  remarkable  career  of 
care  and  labor  here,  outside  of  his  own  profes- 
sorship, because  it  has  been  said  that  the 
acceptance  of  these  extraneous  duties  was  the 
great  mistake  of  his  life.  It  certainly  adds  em- 
phasis to  such  a  declaration  if  we  remember,  as 
we  must,  that  while  in  the  midst  of  such  engros- 
sing engagements,  which  left  him  but  little  time 
for  rest  or  recreation,  his  finely  balanced  organi- 
zation, remarkable  always  for  the  ease  as  well 
as  efficiency  of  its  working,  gave  way  as  in  a 
moment,  long  years  before  the  natural  end  of  so 
vigorous  and  healthful  a  life.  But  there  are  two 
very  diverse  theories  in  regard  to  the  sphere  and 
duties  of  a  professor  in  an  institution  such  as 
this  ;  one  is  to  do  regularly  and  well  the  work 
of  the  class-room  from  Septerhber  to  May,  and 
then  count  the  contract  for  the  year  ended 
in    letter     and      spirit ;     the     other    is,     to     do 


198  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

as  Dr.  Allen  did,  and  to  be  so  far  as  possible 
what  he  was,  Certainly  all  men  are  not  consti- 
tuted alike,  and  there  are  those  occupying 
such  positions  who  on  one  side  find  themselves  en- 
grossed and  satisfied  with  their  special  work, 
and  on  the  other  naturally  shrink  from  the  ac- 
ceptance of  any  extraneous  responsibilities,  or 
judge  themselves  under  no  obligation,  however 
qualified,  to  carry  such  additional  weight.  More- 
over, under  the  charter  of  the  Seminary  strictly 
construed  no  professor  can  properly  be  a  treas- 
urer, as  Dr.  Allen  was  ;  and  not  more  than  one 
member  of  the  Faculty,  if  any,  could  at  any 
given  time  become  a  superintendent,  as  he  did. 
But  there  never  has  been  a  day  in  the  life  of 
Lane  Seminary  when  it  was  not  dependent  on 
such  general  assistance  as  its  teachers,  and 
they  alone,  could  give — never  a  day  at  least 
within  the  first  forty  years,  when  it  could  have 
sustained  itself  without  their  aid,  over  and  above 
the  best  that  they  could  do  in  their  respective 
chairs  of  instruction.  In  some  deep  sense  it 
must  always  be  true  that  the  best  there  is  in 
any  teacher — the  sum  total  of  his  capacities,  at- 
tainments, opportunities,  influence,  belongs  of 
right  to  any  institution  which  he  is  called  and 
chosen  to  serve,  and  with  whose  prosperity  the 
practical  results  of  his  own  life  and  work  as  a 
Christian   man   are  indissolubly  conjoined. 

Dr.  Allen  saw  this  from  the  very  first,  and 
continued  to    see    it  and    to  feel  it    down  to  the 


MEMORIAL    OF    DR.    ALLEN.  199 

last.  It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  he  was  fond 
of  these  extra-professorial  labors.  He  loved  his 
study  and  his  teaching  far  more,  and  only  turned 
himself  to  this  less  welcome  task  because  it  had 
to  be  done,  and  to  be  done  by  some  teacher. 
It  is  an  error  to  fancy  that  any  man  whose  life 
has  been  consecrated  to  the  high  business  of  in- 
struction in  such  a  place  as  this,  can  betake 
himself  easily  to  repairing  fences,  or  selling  lots 
in  a  cemetery,  or  struggling  with  an  unworthy 
tenant,  or,  last  and  worst  of  all,  begging  bread 
to  keep  the  institution  alive.  But  he  did  this, 
and  did  it  in  a  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  it  would 
be  well  for  all  teachers  here  through  all  the 
future  to  emulate,  so  far  as  God  may  give  them 
grace  and  opportunity.  For  this  he  deliber- 
ately accepted  a  lower  place  in  the  public  esti- 
mation than  he  might  have  filled  as  an  instructor  ; 
for  this  he  gave  up  the  preparation  of  his  theo- 
logical lectures  for  the  press  ;  for  this  he  worked 
on  and  on,  summer  and  winter,  for  seven  and 
twenty  years  until  he  fell. 

But  it  was  not  the  great  mistake  of  his  life  ; 
it  was  rather  its  peculiar  joy  and  crown.  The 
vSeminary  as  it  stands  is  the  beautiful  proof  and 
evidence.  It  is  true  that  seventeen  short  years 
have  done  much,  too  much,  to  obliterate  the 
specific  traces  of  his  loving  hand  and  care. 
Buildings  and  grounds  have  changed  ;  genera- 
tions of  students  have  come  and  gone  ;  new 
teachers  fill  the  old  places  ;  new  trustees,  many 


200  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

of  whom  never  knew  him,  at  least  intimately, 
and  are  not  specially  cognizant  of  his  work,  are 
now  handling  this  sacred  trust.  I  had  beguh  to 
fear  that  there  would  be  even  no  portrait  of  his 
thoughtful,  benignant,  saintly  face  to  grace 
these  walls  in  honor  of  his  faithful  services.  I 
realize  that  in  a  few  moments  the  sun  of  this 
day  of  commemoration  will  have  set,  and  that 
in  a  few  years  more  the  memory  of  him  will 
have  become  a  tradition,  beautiful  and  winning, 
but  a  tradition  only.  Yet  I  can  not  count  such 
a  life  a  mistake,  or  in  any  sense  whatever  a 
disappointment.  For,  the  men  who  do  the  hard 
and  rough  work  of  the  world — wh©  build  up  its 
enduring  interests,  carry  on  its  institutions,  push 
forward  its  practical  enterprises,  and  for  the 
time  carry  on  their  hearts  and  in  their  arms,  so 
far  as  they  can,  the  whole  cause  and  kingdom 
of  God  on  earth,  are  after  all  the  valuable  men 
and  the  remembered  men.  That  President 
Dwight  should  have  written  his  able  and  spirit- 
ual and  quickening  compendium  of  Christian 
Theology  was  a  great  thing  ;  that  he  should  have 
builded  Yale  College  was  a  greater  thing,  and 
the  world  could  now  much  better  spare  the  The- 
ology than  the  College.  Dr.  Allen  did  not  live 
to  print  his  admirable  system  of  doctrine,  but  he 
did  live  to  build  up  and  preserve  Lane  Semi- 
nary, and  a  monument  to  his  memory,  grander 
than   that  system  of  doctrine,  is  here. 


VII. 


h,  llewelfn  J.  [vans,  D.D.  LLD, 


A  MEMORIAL  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE 
THE  LANE  CLUB. 


JANUARY  17,   1893. 


Llewelyn  loan  Evans  was  born  at  Treud- 
dyn,  near  Mold,  North  Wales,  June  27,  1833. 
The  family  had  been  prominent  in  that  section 
of  the  Principality  for  two  generations,  espec- 
ially in  connection  with  the  Calvinistic  Metho- 
dist church  of  Wales  in  which  one  of  his  grand- 
fathers. Rev.  Robert  Roberts,  had  been  a 
conspicuous  minister.  His  father.  Rev.  Ed- 
ward T.  Evans,  was  also  an  esteemed  minister 
in  the  same  connection,  first  in  Wales  and  then 
in  America,  where  he  labored  chiefly  in  Racine, 
Wis.,  and  Newark,  O.,  until  his  death  in  1881. 
His  own  boyhood  was  happily  passed  under 
such  intellectual  and  spiritual  stimulus  as  these 
surroundings  would  supply,  and  from  his  youth 
he  was  familiar  with  divine  things  and  knew  by 
sweet  experience  the  saving  grace  of  God.  For 
three  years  he  was  a  student  in  the  academic 
and  theoloo-ical  institute  at  Bala,  in  central 
Wales — the  same  institution  within  which,  in  its 
new  development  as  a  theological  seminary,  he 
had  expected,  after  his  resignation  here,  to  spend 
the  remainder  of  his  active  days  as  a  teacher. 
It  was  a  strange  fact  that,  after  a  residence  of 
more  than  forty  years  in  a  foreign  land,  he 
should  have  closed  his  eyes  on  earth  at  the  very 
spot  where  he  had  received  the  lirst  elements  of 


MEMORIAL   OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  203 

that  intellectual  discipline  and  culture  for  which 
his  maturer  life  was  so  marked. 

Traditions  are  current  respecting  his  rare 
intelligence  and  precocity  as  a  youth.  One  of 
the  many  tributes  published  since  his  decease 
speaks  of  the  testimony  of  his  classmates  at 
Bala  and  elsewhere  as  to  his  remarkable  dili- 
gence and  success  in  studies.  He  became  early 
a  writer  unJer  various  fictitious  names  in  the 
weekly  and  monthly  periodicals.  Though  but 
seventeen  when  his  father  emigrated  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1850  to  America,  he  had  already  acquired 
some  local  reputation  at  home  as  both  orator 
and  poet.  It  is  related  that  a  somewhat  con- 
spicuous Welsh  bard,  Llew  Llwyfo,  who  was 
associated  with  his  father  in  certain  business  lines 
and  residing  under  the  same  roof  with  him,  once 
found  himself  vigorously  criticised  by  some  un- 
known antagonist  in  a  local  periodical,  and  was 
after  a  time  surprised  to  find  that  his  vigorous 
antagonist  was  none  other  than  the  young  lad 
who  sat  day  by  day  at  the  same  table.  And  it 
is  a  pleasant  supplement  to  the  story  that  in  the 
year  after  the  migration  Llew  Llwyfo  published 
in  a  volume  of  poems  a  highly  complimentary 
ode  to  the  young  student,  with  a  preface  describ- 
mg  him  poetically  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
flowers  in  the  field  of  Welsh  literature,  and  la- 
menting his  departure  as  a  loss  to  his  native 
land.  It  is  also  an  interesting  incident  that  his 
departure  should    have    been  made  the  occasion 


204  THIRTY   YEARS   IN    LANE. 

of  a  public  meeting  in  Bangor,  where  addresses 
were  made,  poems  read,  and  books  presented  to 
the  departing  emigrant  as  a  marked  token  of  the 
public  regard. 

It  is  now  an  amusing  fact  that  the  young 
immigrant  to  America,  doubtless  with  a  view  to 
his  own  support,  proposed  after  a  while  to  be- 
come a  carpenter,  and  to  that  end  actually 
entered  upon  an  apprenticeship  and  began  labor 
in  that  line,  though  all  the  while  carrying  on 
his  studies  and  his  literary  work.  But  the 
thirst  for  knowledge  was  too  strong  to  be  sup- 
pressed, and  in  1852  he  entered  the  Episcopal 
college  in  Racine,  and  resumed  his  studies  with 
exemplary  assiduity  and  success,  until  he  was 
graduated  with  honor,  receiving  the  degree  of 
B.  S.  in  1854  and  of  B.  A.  in  1856.  His  grad- 
uating address  was  a  poem  on  the  Loss  of 
Childhood,  which  was  thought  worthy  of  pub- 
lication in  the  local  press.  I  have  heard  that  his 
struggle  for  support  while  pursuing  the  collegiate 
course,  was  such  as  taxed  all  the  energies  of  his 
buoyant  and  resolute  nature,  as  has  been  true  in 
the  case  of  many  who  have  risen,  perhaps 
through  the  discipline  which  such  struggle 
brings,  to  the  highest  position  in  church  or  state. 
He  was  at  once  engaged  as  an  instructor  in  the 
college,  and  continued  during  some  part  of  the 
subsequent  year  to  discharge  the  duties  involved 
in  such  a  connection. 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  205 

One  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  in   the 
life  of  Dr.  Evans  is  that  which  includes  the  period 
between  his  entrance  upon  collegiate  duties  and 
the  commencement  of  his  career  five  years  later 
as  a    student  in  Lane    Seminary.      Allusion   has 
already  been    made    to    his    remarkable    mental 
development  as  a  youth  in  Wales.    The  promise 
of  that  early  day  was  more  than  realized  in  the 
period  just  defined.     During  his  college  life  and 
after  his  graduation,  he  gave  himself  largely  to 
literary  work  in  the  Welsh  language,  and  to  the 
furtherance  of  the    intellectual   and  moral  inter- 
ests of  his    countrymen    in    the    city  and  in  the 
state.      He    became  an    ardent  advocate  of  tem- 
perance, and    his    numerous  addresses    on     that 
subject    are    described    as    remarkable  for    their 
earnestness  and  their  effect.      He  interested  him- 
self in  the  culture  of  the  musical  talent  for  which 
the  Welsh  people  are  so  noted.      In  the  Sabbath 
school,  which  constitutes  so  prominent  a  feature 
in  the  Welsh  religious  life,  he  was  no  less  active 
and  useful.    He  organized  a  Welsh  literary  soci- 
etv  in  Racine,  and  was  the  chief  agent  in  secur- 
ing the    first  Eisteddfod    held    in  that  section  of 
the  West.      He  was  appointed  as  the  poet  of  this 
Eisteddfod,  and  his  contributions  are  said  to  have 
constituted    one  of  its  most    attractive    features. 
The  red-headed  and  curly-headed  boy,  says  one 
who  knew  him  at    that  time,  was  the  animating 
spirit    of    the    entire    movement,     and     the    idol 
and    leader     of     his      countrymen     in      all     that 


206  THIRTY   YEARS    IN    LANE. 

concerned  either  their  intellectual  or  their 
moral  life. 

A  correspondent  in  a  Welsh  magazine  (  T 
Cyfaill,  December,  1892 )  relates  in  an  interest- 
ing way  his  first  impressions  of  Dr.  Evans  at  this 
period.  Having  come  to  Racine  as  his  chosen 
home,  the  vvrriter,  in  company  with  an  acquaint- 
ance, started  out  to  see  the  city.  Coming  in 
their  wanderings  to  the  Welsh  Calvinistic  Meth- 
odist Church,  which  is  described  as  a  small, 
plain  edifice,  they  were  attracted  by  light  in  the 
building.  On  looking  through  the  window  they 
saw — as  he  says — a  well-formed  and  handsome 
young  man,  florid  in  complexion,  his  hair  curled 
and  bushy,  standing  before  the  pulpit  addressing 
an  audience  of  young  people  with  such  earnest- 
ness and  effectiveness  that  they  seemed,  as  it 
were,  to  be  fastened  upon  his  lips.  He  was 
explaining  to  them  the  principles  and  rules  of 
Welsh  literature,  especially  poetry,  and  with 
such  charm  and  force  that  all  present  were 
astonished  at  his  learning  and  his  persuasive- 
ness. On  inquiring  who  the  speaker  was,  the 
writer  was  told  of  his  remarkable  abilities,  of 
his  intelligence  and  education,  of  the  prominence 
he  had  already  gained,  and  of  the  current  ex- 
pectation that  he  would  in  time  come  to  be  one 
of  the  great  men  of  the  country. 

The  second  Racine  Eisteddfod  was  held  at 
the  Christmas  following  his  entrance  upon  studies 
here.     His  poetical  contributions  to  that  Eistedd- 


MEMORIAL   OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  207 

fod  were  a  poem  of  1,450  lines  in  blank  verse, 
on  the  Victory  of  the  Cross,  an  ode  of  600  lines 
on  Time,  a  Shepherd  Song  of  nearly  500  lines, 
and  some  verses  on  the  Good  of  Patriotism. 
The  Shepherd  Song  has  been  described  as  one 
of  the  finest  productions  of  the  class  in  the 
Welsh  language,  and  the  poem  is  one  of  extra- 
ordinary beauty  and  power.  For  these  and  for 
the  verses  on  Patriotism  he  received  the  highest 
prize,  and  their  publication  gave  him  at  once  a 
prominent  place  among  the  younger  poets  of  his 
people.  The  eminent  bard  who  made  the  de- 
cision, in  his  final  adjudication  warns  the  poets 
of  Wales  to  beware  lest  their  bardic  honors  be 
carried  away  to  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  About 
the  same  time  the  young  poet  composed  an  ode 
of  850  lines  in  dramatic  form  on  Martyrdom, 
which  received  the  first  prize  from  the  older 
Eisteddfod  at  Utica,  N.  Y.,  and  which  the  ad- 
judicator describes  as  characterized  by  extensive 
knowledge,  by  painstaking  and  sympathetic  in- 
sight into  the  theme,  and  by  great  taste  and 
skill  in  the  composition.  Beautiful  and  precious, 
he  says,  are  the  pearls  found  in  this  poem,  and 
fitting  is  the  shell  of  measure  and  rhythm  that 
contains  them.  Other  poems  of  this  period  are 
a  graceful  and  touching  Hymn  to  the  Harp,  and 
another  on  the  Harmony  of  the  Spheres,  both 
of  which  have  since  been  set  to  music.  One  of 
his  papers  is  an  essay  on  the  True  Worth  of 
Learning,   published    in    the    Welsh    quarterly, 


208  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

T"  Traet/iodydd,  an  essay  which  the  editor  com- 
mends as  exhibiting  talents  of  the  highest  order. 
An  admirable  paper  on  Oliver  Cromwell  furn- 
ishes another  illustration,  alike  of  his  intellect- 
ual activity  and  of  his  literary  abilities. 

When  the  poem  on  the  Victory  of  the  Cross 
was  published,  the  young  author  was  bitterly  as- 
sailed by  an  anonymous  critic  in  the  Welsh  press, 
as  having  copied  in  substance  certain  passages 
of  the  poem  from  the  Paradise  Lost,  or  hav- 
ing at  least  too  closely  imitated  Milton  in  the 
thoughts  as  well  as  the  form  of  his  production. 
A  painful  controversy  followed  in  which  Dr. 
Evans  defended  himself  with  vigor  and  success, 
but  which  led  him  (unfortunately)  to  abandon 
all  further  poetical  composition  in  the  Welsh 
tongue.  He  kept  up  his  scholarly  study  of  the 
language  and  its  literature,  was  recognized  as  a 
cultured  and  fluent  speaker  and  preacher,  and 
as  a  high  authority  on  all  linguistic  questions, 
and  frequently  consented  even  in  the  last  years 
of  his  life,  to  act  as  adjudicator  upon  competi- 
tive poetry  and  prose  in  the  national  Eistedd- 
fodau.  His  love  for  the  language  and  his  joy  in 
the  study  and  use  of  it  and  faith  in  its  remark- 
able capabilities  grew  with  his  years,  and  was 
never  more  intense  than  at  the  time  when  he 
supposed  that  the  remainder  of  his  life  would 
be  spent  in  literary  work  in  his  native  land. 
His  interest  in  the  Welsh  Bible,  viewed  as  a 
literary  work  only,  was  profound.      He  has  more 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  209 

than  once  assured  me  that  he  regarded  the  trans- 
lation as  quite  superior  to  our  English  version 
in  its  reproduction,  especially  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament Greek.  The  language  itself  is  remark- 
ably saturated  with  this  biblical  quality  ;  the 
old  Bible  has  made  it  largely  what  it  is.  As 
some  one  has  said  of  it,  it  is  dyed  red  with  the 
blood  of  Calvary.  But  from  the  date  of  this 
controversy  he  ceased  his  literary  labors  in  the 
Welsh  toncrue.  and  his  farewell  to  the  Welsh 
muse  in  the  pamphlet  with  which  he  closes  the 
discussion,  is  one  of  the  most  pathetic  pieces  of 
composition  to  be  found  in  literature.  I  wish 
that  there  were  room  to  introduce  it  here  as  an 
illustration  alike  of  his  literary  skill  and  genius, 
and  of  his  poetical  temperament  and  the  sensi- 
tiveness and  the  elevation  of  his  nature.  It 
seems  a  pity  that  such  a  development  should 
have  been  arrested  so  suddenly  and  entirely, 
whether  by  the  bitterness  of  hostile  criticism, 
or  even  by  the  new  call  to  a  new  sphere  of 
thought  and  experience  into  which  his  entrance 
on  theological  studies  was  now  summoning 
him. 

Before  we  turn  to  contemplate  the  student 
life  of  Dr.  Evans,  we  should  notice  in  a  word 
his  brief  but  brilliant  career  in  the  political 
sphere.  In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1856 
he  became  an  earnest  advocate  of  Fremont  and 
of  the  party  of  which  that  distinguished  general 
was   at  the  time    the    elect   representative.      His 


210  THIRTY   YEARS   IN   LANE. 

power  as  a  skillful  orator  was  at  once  recog- 
nized, and  calls  for  his  services  on  the  platform 
came  from  far  and  near.  Shortly  after  he  was 
nominated  as  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature  of 
Wisconsin  from  the  city  of  Racine,  and  was 
elected  by  a  substantial  majority.  Though  pos- 
sibly the  youngest  member  of  the  body,  he  was 
made  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Education, 
and  is  said  to  have  made  for  himself  a  very 
creditable  record  in  that  position.  But  in  the 
following  year  he  removed  from  the  city  and 
the  state,  and  henceforth  his  interest  in  political 
principles  and  movements  was  rather  that  of  the 
Christian  student  and  thinker  than  of  an  active 
participant  in  party  affairs.  What  he  might  not 
have  become  in  the  political  sphere,  after  an  in- 
troduction so  conspicuous,  and  with  abilities  so 
rare,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  surmise.  It  may  be 
that  he  might  have  been  called  to  administer  as 
governor  the  affairs  of  the  state  of  his  adoption, 
or  to  sit  as  its  representative  in  the  national  sen- 
ate, instead  of  becoming  the  noble  and  devout 
scholar  and  preacher  whom  we  have  all  rejoiced 
to  know  and  to  honor. 

The  student  life  of  Dr.  Evans  in  this  insti- 
tution began  during  the  autumn  of  1857,  and 
some  time  after  the  opening  of  the  term.  1  am 
not  familiar  with  the  causes  or  considerations 
that  brought  him  to  Cincinnati  in  the  earlier 
half  of  the  year.  He  was  already  in  the  city, 
engaged  as  an  assistant  in  the  editorial  manage- 


MEMORIAL    OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  21  1 

ment  of  the  old  Gazette^  when  his  determination 
to  enter  the  Seminary  was  formed.  In  a  letter 
to  a  personal  friend  in  Wales  written  in  the 
summer  of  1858,  he  describes  in  a  manly  and 
earnest  way  his  purpose  in  studying  theology, 
his  mental  and  spiritual  conflicts  in  contempla- 
tion of  the  ministry,  and  his  firm  resolve  to  be 
true  to  the  truth  and  to  himself,  whithersoever 
such  fidelity  might  lead  him.  I  sliould  hardly 
be  justified  in  quoting  at  length  from  this  inter- 
esting letter.  The  author  speaks  confidentially  of 
the  period  of  self-questioning  and  struggle  with 
himself  through  which  he  had  passed  at  the  close 
of  his  junior  year  ;  of  his  growing  desire  to  be 
of  service  in  some  way  to  God  and  to  his  fellow- 
men  ;  of  his  determination  to  do  whatever  he 
finds  to  be  right,  and  of  his  interior  spiritual  life 
and  hopes.  He  confesses  himself  uncertain  as 
to  whether  he  shall  be  able  to  adhere  in  con- 
science to  the  very  rigid  type  of  Calvinism  in 
which  he  had  been  trained,  but  avows  his  un- 
swerving purpose  to  adhere  to  the  fundamental 
verities  of  Christianity,  however  great  may  be 
the  mystery  that  surrounds  them.  He  declares 
with  earnestness  that  he  cannot  be  false  to  him- 
self without  losing  faith  in  everything  else,  and 
even  indicates  his  intention  to  return  to  literary 
work  unless  he  can  enter  the  ministry  with  clear 
convictions  and   an  honest  heart. 

Surely  it  was    a  special    providence    which 
brought  this  young,  vigorous,  earnest,  inquiring 


212  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

mind  under  the  instruction,  just  at  this  juncture, 
of  so  broad  and  clear  and  spiritual  a  teacher  as 
Dr.  Allen.  That  eminent  man  had  himself  been 
trained  in  the  Edwardean  theology,  and  had 
cordially  accepted  the  improvements  which 
Jonathan  Edwards  had  made  in  the  older  type 
of  Calvinism.  By  natural  calmness  of  temper, 
by  a  habit  of  close  and  discriminating  thought, 
and  by  a  sweet  experience  of  grace,  he  had 
been  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  chair  of  systematic 
theology,  into  which,  in  the  fortieth  year  of  his 
life,  he  had  been  inducted  six  years  before. 
The  heart  of  the  young  student  turned  to  him  at 
once,  and  a  love  sprung  up  between  them  which 
lasted  through  life,  and  wliich  doubtless  is  now 
revived  and  enjoyed  as  one  of  the  felicities  o^ 
heaven. 

I  have  heard  Dr.  Evans  speak  especially  of 
the  lectures  of  his  trusted  instructor  on  the  mo- 
ral law  and  government  of  God,  and  the  con- 
science, as  among  the  most  helpful  influences  in 
forming  both  his  theological  system  and  his  re- 
ligious sentiments  and  experience.  On  such 
subjects  as  election  and  grace,  the  person  of 
Christ,  the  atonement,  the  nature  of  faith  and 
justification,  he  then  received  what  became  the 
substance  and  marrow  of  all  his  subsequeut 
thinking  in  the  department  of  Christian  doctrine. 
The  theology  of  the  Seminary  in  general  as 
represented  by  the  entire  Faculty  of  that  day, 
stamped  itself  ineflaceably  upon  his  mind  and  be- 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  213 

came  the  accepted  theology  of  his  life.  There 
was  at  the  time  an  average  attendance  of  thirty 
or  more  in  the  Seminary,  and  a  Faculty  of  three 
members,  each  one  of  whom  was  in  a  high  de- 
gree efficient  in  teaching  and  deservedly  popular 
among  the  students  and  in  the  Church.  The 
five  classes  with  which  Dr.  Evans  came  into  con- 
tact during  the  three  years  of  his  stay,  con- 
tained a  considerable  number  of  men  who  have 
since  then  made  their  mark  as  ministers  and  have 
shed  special  lustre  upon  the  institution  in  which 
they  were  trained.  It  was  a  period  of  unusual 
interest  in  missions,  both  foreign  and  at  home, 
no  less  than  six  of  his  associates  having  gone 
into  foreign  lands,  while  a  large  majority  be- 
came home  missionaries,  either  in  this  region  or 
in  the  farther  west.  It  was  also  a  period  of  vigorous 
mental  activity,  of  both  study  and  discussion, 
and  of  special  stimulation  along  lines  alike  in- 
tellectual and  spiritual.  And  into  all  this  Dr. 
Evans  entered  with  the  keenest  zest  and  with  a 
most  sympathetic  temper,  as  his  associates  agree 
in  testifying  ;  always  among  the  foremost, 
whether  in  study  or  in  debate,  and  always  influ- 
ential in  both  opinion  and  example. 

There  was  also  something  in  what  I  may 
call  the  atmosphere,  the  geist^  of  the  Seminary 
itself,  which  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  stimulate 
and  nourish  a  nature  such  as  his.  Founded  for 
the  purpose  of  training  an  intelligent,  earnest, 
capable    ministry   for    what  was  then  the  West ; 


214  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

taking  form  and  temper  largely  from  the  person- 
ality of  Lyman  Beecher,  its  first  instructor  in 
Christian  Theology  ;  saturated  with  the  spirit  of 
revivalism,  and  with  the  broadest  desire  to  save 
men,  even  though  it  should  be  by  some  sacrifice 
of  the  rigidities  of  doctrine,  Lane  had  come  to  be 
in  some  degree  peculiar  in  its  broad  and  free 
exposition  of  divine  truth,  in  its  catholic  animus, 
in  its  genuine  brotherliness  toward  all  of  what- 
soever name  who  loved  and  served  the  common 
Lord.  The  Institution  was  no  stickler  for  tech- 
nical dogmas,  never  intolerant  toward  permis- 
sible variations  of  belief — in  no  sense  narrow  or 
bigoted  in  maintaining  what  it  regarded  as  true. 
It  was  at  once  conservative  and  progressive  ;  con- 
servative as  to  everv  essential  of  evancrelical 
■J  & 

faith,  yet  believing  heartily  in  progress  along  all 
legitimate  lines  of  investigation,  and  ever  ready 
to  welcome  new  truth  from  whatsoever  source. 
The  ecclesiastical  trials  to  which  its  leading 
teacher  had  been  subjected  for  his  failure  to  ac- 
cept the  ifsissima  verba  of  a  certain  school  in 
theology,  had  wrought  out  unanticipated  results 
in  the  development,  not  merely  of  a  freer  type  of 
belief,  but  far  more  in  the  culture  of  a  more  gen- 
erous and  loving  temper,  even  toward  those  who 
were  its  fiercest  antagonists.  And  through  the 
quarter  of  a  century  that  followed  these  trials, 
this  better  spirit  had  become  enthroned  here  and 
was  even  a  crowning  characteristic  of  the  Sem- 
inary life.      Without    becoming  in   any    instance 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  215 

a  nursery  of  error  in  doctrine  or  a  representative 
of  mere  novelties,  theological  or  exegetical,  Lane 
was  in  the  best  sense  a  liberal  institution — a  place 
in  which  no  young  man  was  ever  narrowed  in  faith 
or  feeling  ;  in  which  no  mere  dogmatist  could 
breathe  freely,  and  from  which  no  mere  dogmatist 
ever  emerged  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  church. 
Into  such  a  spirit  how  easy  it  was  for  a  young 
man  like  Evans  to  enter  sympathetically,  and 
how  natural  for  him  to  become  suffused  with 
that  spirit,  as  an  organizing  and  inspiring  life  I 
He  would  have  been  a  free,  broad,  tolerant,  lov- 
ing man  under  any  conditions,  but  breathing  the 
historic  atmosphere  of  Lane,  he  became  such  in 
a  higher  measure  than  might  have  been  attain- 
able elsewhere.  May  the  time  never  come 
when  this  beloved  institution  shall  cease  to  pro- 
duce such  manly,  such  catholic  characters  as 
his. 

Shortly  after  his  graduation  in  1860,  Dr. 
Evans  was  invited  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Lane 
Seminary  church,  an  organization  which  had 
sprung  into  existence  as  early  as  1834,  and  was 
originally  composed  almost  entirely  of  the  pro- 
fessors and  their  families,  and  of  the  students, 
but  which  at  this  time  had  grown  by  the  accession 
of  families  resident  on  Walnut  Hills,  until  it  had 
attained  a  membership  of  114.  With  great  accept- 
ance he  served  in  this  relation  through  three 
succeeding  years,  making  a  record  for  intellec- 
tual ability  and  for  Christian  devotion  which  is 


216  THIRTY  YEARS    IN    LANE. 

Still  remembered  here,  until  in  May,  1863,  he 
was  elected  to  be  the  Professor  of  Church  His- 
tory in  the  Seminary.  Previous  to  that  time, 
the  instruction  in  this  department  had  been  di- 
vided among  the  incumbents  of  other  chairs,  but 
the  trustees  were  wisely  alive  to  the  growing 
importance  of  the  department,  and  were  exceed- 
ingly fortunate  in  their  selection  of  the  man  who 
should  lift  it  into  its  deserved  prominence  in  the 
curriculum  of  the  institution.  The  new  teacher 
was  full  of  enthusiasm  in  his  new  work,  and  his 
lectures,  especially  on  prominent  personages  in 
church  history,  were  listened  to  with  great  in- 
terest, not  only  by  the  students,  but  by  others 
who  were  permitted  to  attend  them.  An  address, 
which,  taking  the  place  of  Dr.  Allen,  he  deliv- 
ered before  the  General  Assembly  at  Dayton,  in 
1864,  at  the  celebration  of  the  tercentenary  of 
the  death  of  John  Calvin,  is  still  remembered 
as  a  remarkable  specimen  alike  of  historic  in- 
sight and  of  literary  finish. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  instruction 
in  Church  History  was  the  line  of  work  to  which 
constitutionally  and  by  experience  he  was  best 
adapted.  Some  indication  of  his  own  judgment 
in  the  matter  appears  in  the  fact  that  when, 
after  the  resig-nation  of  Prof.  Ballantine  in  the 
fall  of  1867,  the  chair  of  Biblical  Literature, 
including  both  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scrip- 
tures, was  offered  to  him,  he  very  cordially 
accepted  it,  and  from  that  date  entered  upon  what 


Memorial  of  professor  evans.         217 

proved  to  be  the  main  work  of  his  life.  At  that 
time  I  became  his  associate,  taking  the  chair 
which  he  had  vacated,  and  thenceforth  our  lives 
became  linked  and  intertwined  in  a  relation- 
ship of  service  and  friendship  which  continued 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  without  break,  and 
was  ended  only  with  his  death. 

In  1871,  the  work  of  his  professorship  was 
divided,  and  he  became  the  instructor  in  the 
Hebrew  language  and  literature  only.  But 
upon  the  death,  in  1875,  of  Dr.  Thomas,  to 
whom  the  corresponding  work  in  the  Greek  had 
been  given,  he  was  by  his  own  choice  trans- 
ferred to  that  department,  and  remained  in  it 
without,  change  for  seventeen  years,  until  his 
final  resignation.  His  entire  period  of  service 
in  all  departments  was  twenty-nine  years — the 
longest  professorate  in  the  history  of  the  Sem- 
inary. 

How  diligent  he  was  in  his  loved  studies, 
how  faithful  to  the  great  department  assigned 
him,  how  broad  and  thorough  in  his  investiga- 
tions, how  accurate  and  comprehensive  in  his 
acquisitions,  it  is  not  needful  that  I  should  say. 
By  day  and  by  night  he  was  always  reading, 
always  studying.  The  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scrip- 
tures became  almost  vernacular  with  him.  He 
made  himself  familiar  with  cognate  languages, 
and  with  oriental  literature.  He  consulted 
commentaries  of  all  schools  and  of  various 
tongues,    familiarized   himself  with  all    philoso- 


218  THIRTY   YEAkS    IN   LANE. 

phies,  was  at  home  among  the  theologians.  He 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  sacred  oracles  all 
available  lights  ;  summoned  to  his  aid  each  use- 
ful help  ;  used  criticism  of  all  altitudes,  never 
wearying  in  his  endeavor  to  ascertain  by  what- 
ever process  the  very  mind  of  God  as  set  forth 
in  his  Holy  Word.  So  ceaseless  and  so  fertile 
was  he  in  his  elucidation  of  the  Bible,  especially 
of  those  portions  of  it  in  which  his  interest  was 
particularly  centered,  such  as  the  Epistle  to  the 
Roman  church,  that  I  used  playfully  to  accuse 
him  of  finding  more  in  that  grand  epistle  than 
the  apostle  himself  had  ever  seen  in  it.  His 
steady  growth  in  insight  and  knowledge  was 
apparent,  year  by  year,  to  those  who  were  in 
continuous  contact  with  him.  There  was  an 
affluence  in  his  acquisitions  which  seemed  at 
times  overpowering  ;  there  was  also  a  progres- 
sive maturity  in  his  conclusions  which  gave 
them  convincing  dignity  and  a  commanding 
effect.  And  so  he  grew  to  be  a  great  biblicist 
and  exegete,  and  all  unconsciously  won  for  him- 
self a  place  among  the  foremost  New  Testament 
scholars  of  our  Church. 

How  gentle,  how  sympathetic,  how  patient 
he  was  as  a  teacher!  The  dull,  or  idle,  or  cap- 
tious, or  unfaithful  student  found  in  him  an  apol- 
ogist rather  than  an  accuser ;  the  defectively 
trained  mind,  stumbling  painfully  through  its 
task,  felt  the  touch  of  his  helpful  hand.  At  the  feet 
of  the  bright  and  earnest  pupil  he  was  ever  ready 


MEMORIAL   Ot   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  219 

to  lay  the  results  of  his  long  years  of  investiga- 
tion. None  of  his  classes  loved  him  more  than 
those  who  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  most  ma- 
ture researches,  but  who  also  realized  that  his 
weakening  physique  was  the  sign  of  service 
nearly  ended.  For  his  loved  work  he  prepared 
himself  in  the  most  conscientious  way,  even 
after  his  declining  strength  would  have  war- 
ranted him  in  depending  on  past  preparations  ; 
and  so  he  won  the  reward  which  such  a  habit 
would  naturally  bring,  in  a  steadily  increasing 
capability  and  success.  His  professorship  was 
not  an  incidental  thing  whose  claims  upon  his 
time  and  his  powers  were  such  as  might  be 
shared  with  other  interests  or  affairs  however 
important.  He  gave  to  it  freely,  ungrudgingly, 
all  there  was  of  himself,  and  found  in  it  enough 
to  occupy  and  absorb  all  his  noblest  capacities. 
It  would  be  too  delicate  a  task  to  compare  him 
with  other  teachers  of  this  Institution  ;  but  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  none  of  them,  from  Lyman 
Beecher  down,  ever  excelled  him  in  devotedness 
to  his  appointed  work,  or  won  more  justly  that 
praise  which  nothing  but  such  devotedness  can 
ever  secure. 

The  literary  work  of  Dr.  Evans  while  in 
Lane  will  be  sketched  by  another  hand.  I  may 
simply  say  that  the  promise  of  his  youth  was 
fully  justified  in  his  mature  years,  though  his 
efforts  in  such  lines  were  too  occasional  and  too 
fugitive  to  secure  for    him  the    reputation  which 


220  THIRTY    YEARS    IN    LANE. 

he  might  under  other  conditions  have  gained. 
Now  and  then  there  came  from  his  ready  pen 
some  bits  of  poetry  that  made  us  long  for  more, 
and  assured  us  that  there  was  within  his  breast 
a  harp  whose  chords  might  have  sounded  out  in 
louder  and  richer  strains.  His  newspaper  articles, 
though  not  frequent,  were  graceful,  pungent,  in- 
structive and  convincing.  ,  His  debates  in  the 
public  press  were  always  telling,  though 
he  did  not  always  estimate  the  weight  of  his 
Qwn  sledge-hammer,  and  sometimes  simply  de- 
molished the  opponent  whom  he  was  seeking  to 
persuade.  In  his  earlier  days  as  a  professor  he 
was  for  some  years  a  regular  contributor  to  one 
of  our  religious  papers — The  Central  Christian 
Herald^  and  for  five  or  six  years  prior  to  1890 
he  was  an  associate  editor  of  the  Presbyterian  Re- 
view. 

Some  of  his  review  articles,  especially  that 
on  the  Revision  of  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
editorial  on  the  Intermediate  State,  were  models 
of  thorough  and  skillful  discussion.  I  have  seen 
but  little  of  his  English  poetry  in  print.  An 
ode  or  hymn  entitled  Anno  Domini,  and  pub- 
lished twenty  years  ago  in  Our  Monthly,  has 
often  recurred  to  me  as  a  striking  illustration 
alike  of  his  poetic  capacity  and  his  theological 
trend.  His  style  seemed  at  times  too  affluent  in 
imagery,  too  florid  in  illustration,  and  perhaps 
too  intuitional  rather  than  logical  and  discursive, 
though  I  say  this  with    deference  in  the   case  of 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR   EVANS.  221 

one  whose  fine  poetical  quality  was  so  apparent 
even  in  his  most  rigorous  argumentation.  A 
marked  illustration  of  this  appears  in  his  re- 
cent pamphlet  which  has  been  so  much  criti- 
cised and  so  much  misunderstood,  where  he 
runs  the  famous  parallel  between  the  work 
of  creation  and  the  process  of  incarnation 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  movement  of  inspira- 
tion on  the  other— a  parallel  in  which  the  two 
former  are  described  for  the  sake  of  illustrating 
and  proving  his  view  of  the  latter,  in  terms 
which  seems  to  me  excessive  and  liable  to  sucr- 
gest  conclusions  from  which  none  would  be 
readier  than  he  to  shrink.  Yet,  there  was  a  sin- 
gular .charm  in  his  rich,  affluent  method  of  pre- 
senting truth,  before  which  all  cultured  minds 
were  constrained  to  bow.  Many  illustrations  of 
this  will  occur  to  those  who  hear  me.  I  recall 
to  this  day  a  sermon  which  he  delivered  for  me 
in  Columbus,  almost  thirty  years  ago,  on  The 
Young  Manhood  of  Jesus,  and  in  which  his 
facile,  graceful  way  of  treating  a  theme  which 
commanded  his  deepest  interest  was  remarkably 
apparent.  It  was  a  fitting  recognition  of  these 
qualities  of  style  as  well  as  of  his  scholarly 
capacity  and  his  rich  thought,  when  the  Wabash 
College  gave  him,  in  1872,  the  degree  of  D.D., 
and  again  when  Hanover  College  honored  itself  by 
honoring  him  with  the  degree  of  LL.D.,  in  1886. 
I  have  already  alluded  incidently  to  the 
theological  views  of  Dr.  Evans,    and  to  the  ear- 


222  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

]y  and  strong  trend  of  his  mind  towards  what 
may  be  described  as  the  broadened,  improved, 
spiritualized  Calvinism  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. In  his  bright  paper,  read  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  this  building  (the  Lane  Seminary 
Chapel)  in  1879,  he  has  set  forth  for  himself  his 
conception  of  what  that  Calvinism  is,  and  of 
what  it  ought  to  become  as  an  educating  and 
evangelizing  force  in  such  a  country  and  such 
an  age  as  ours.  He  was  himself,  in  his  own 
thinking  and  belief,  a  signal  illustration  of  what 
he  supposed  that  type  of  Christian  theology  to 
be.  I  do  not  suppose  that  in  his  maturer  years 
he  ever  thought  of  surrendering  any  of  the  fun- 
damental axioms  of  Calvinism  ;  he  was  too  pro- 
foundly convinced  of  their  necessary,  internal 
truthfulness.  But  more  and  more  his  thoughts 
and  interest  gathered  around  the  personal 
Christ  as  the  true  center  of  all  Christian  theo- 
logy, above  the  abstract  conception  of  an  eter- 
nal decree,  above  the  thought  of  sovereignty, 
and  far  above  the  range  of  logical  teachings  and 
dogmas  drawn  from  these  high  premises.  To 
him  the  personal  Christ,  in  all  his  divine  quali- 
ties, in  all  his  gracious  offices,  in  the  complete- 
ness of  his  personality  as  both  man  and  God, 
became  the  primary  postulate,  the  one  grand 
axiom  from  which  all  theology  is  to  be  deduced. 
It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  so  much  of  the 
best  thinking  of  our  times  in  evangelical  circles 
is  moving  along  these  new  structural  lines,  not 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  223 

indeed  surrendering  the  old,  but  grouping  all 
other  doctrines  more  and  more  around  this  new, 
this  living  and  divine  center.  In  Dr.  Evans, 
this  process  was  very  apparent  in  the  later 
years  of  his  life.  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
heard  him  ever  utter  a  word  of  sympathy  with 
the  current  notion  that  our  Lord  in  becoming 
man  lost  his  omniscience — became  imperfect  or 
fallible  in  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  or 
of  divine  truth  in  any  form.  Those  who  heard 
his  last  introductory  address  at  the  opening  of 
the  term  in  1891,  on  Personal  Christianity,  will 
recall  the  most  tender,  most  sweet,  most  solemn 
impression  made  by  his  discussion  on  this  vital 
point.  •  It  was  evident  to  all  that  to  him  the  per- 
sonal Christ,  divine  as  well  as  human,  had  be- 
come center  and  key,  heart  and  brain,  Alpha 
and  Omega — all  in  all. 

Such  a  type  of  theology  naturally  made 
him  catholic  and  irenic  toward  all  thinking  and 
thinkers  who,  amid  whatever  minor  diversities, 
could  agree  with  him  at  this  central  and  com- 
manding point.  It  would  have  been  impossible 
for  him  to  become,  under  such  convictions,  a 
shouting,  boisterous  sort  of  Calvinist ;  rejoicing 
in  the  contrast  between  himself  and  other  men, 
and  ready  to  make  battle  against  Arminianism  or 
Lutheranism  for  the  technicalities  of  his  own 
creed.  He  had  no  such  pride  of  opinion,  no 
theologic  conceits,  no  pharisaic  zeal.  His  sym- 
pathies were  as  wide  as  the  church  of  God  ;  he 


224  THIRTY  YEARS    IN   LANE, 

would  join  hands  with  any  and  all  who  loved 
the  Christ.  He  had  studied  Christian  theology 
historically,  and  knew  well  that  all  divine  truth 
is  not  comprehended  or  confined  even  within 
the  magnificent  temple  of  doctrine  raised  by 
John  Calvin.  He  had  studied  Christian  theology 
spiritually,  and  he  knew  well  that  all  spirtual  be- 
liefs must  be  restless  forever  until  they  find  their 
center  and  their  rest  in  the  Messiah,  the  way 
and  truth  and  life  of  men. 

But  how  could  Dr.  Evans  have  become 
such  a  theologian  if  he  had  not  in  his  heart  of 
hearts  believed  the  Bible  to  be  throughout  an 
authoritative  and  perfect  record  and  revelation 
of  the  divine  Christ?  I  have  known  many  men 
who  loved  the  inspired  Scriptures,  and  studied 
them  day  by  day  as  the  supreme  light  of  mind 
and  soul  in  every  thing  pertaining  to  the  spirit- 
ual life  and  to  human  salvation.  But  I  bear 
my  sincere  testimony  at  this  sacred  hour  that  I 
have  never  known  a  man  to  whom  the  Scrip- 
tures seemed  so  much,  who  so  dwelt  in  them  as 
in  a  home,  who  so  cherished,  even  worshipped, 
them  as  the  voice  and  message  of  God  to  our 
lost  race.  The  allegation  that  he,  above  all  men, 
was  engaged  in  teaching  theological  novelties 
rather  than  the  living  truths  of  the  living  God  ; 
that  he  was  indifferent  to  that  doctrinal  evil 
from  which  his  soul  shrank  as  it  were  a  serpent ; 
that  he  was  disloyal  to  the  infallible  word  and 
to  the  perfect  person  of  his  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is 


MEMORIAL    OF   PROFESSOR    EVANS.  225 

one  which  it  is  impossible  to  pardon  except  on 
the  plea  of  "invincible  ignorance."  It  is  known 
to  all  that  I  have  never  been  able  to  accept  his 
later  theory  of  the  nature  and  method  of  Inspi- 
ration ;  and  the  profoundest  reflection  that  I  am 
able  to  give  to  a  theme  whose  deep  mystery  all 
thoughtful  men  concede,  is  not  bringing  me  per- 
ceptibly nearer  this  view.  I  certainly  prefer 
the  statement  brief  and  incomplete  as  it  is, 
which  is  found  in  the  Review  already  mentioned 
on  the  doctrinal  significance  of  the  Revision  of 
the  New  Testament.  But  I  would  no  sooner 
challenge  his  faith  in  the  essential  fact  of  Inspi- 
ration, or  question  his  trust  in  or  his  complete 
and  lovinor  submission  of  soul  to  the  Bible  which 

o 

he  here  expounded  so  sincerely  and  faithfully, 
than  I  would  doubt  that  his  pure  personality  is 
now  with  God. 

The  following  statement  of  his  view  of  In- 
spiration was  written  at  my  request  during  the 
last  months  of  his  life.  It  shows  how  thorough- 
ly loyal  he  was  to  the  Divine  Revelation,  and 
how  faithful  to  that  Divine  Process  by  which 
that  Revelation  has  been  preserved  and  perpe- 
tuated in  the  world. 

"inspiration." 

"1.  The  Bible  is  the  literar}''  embodiment 
or  record  of  the  supernatural  Revelation  which 
God  has  made  of  Himself  and  His  will  for  the 
salvation  of  a  lost  world. 


226  THIRTY  YEARS   IN   LANE. 

"2.  The  record  is  given  generically  and 
primarily  to  accomplish  the  great  end  for  which 
the  Revelation  itself  was  made,  the  salvation  of 
the  world. 

"3.  Specifically  and  secondarily,  and  as 
the  means  of  accomplishing  its  great  generic 
end,  the  record  is  given  to  perpetuate,  to  inter- 
pret, and  to  apply  the  Revelation,  as  this 
seemed  to  the  All-wise  God  to  be  necessary  and 
providentially  possible. 

"4.  Inspiration  is  that  supernatural  agency 
in  the  personal  and  providential  preparation  of 
the  record  which  makes  it  divinely  authoritative 
and  effectual  in  the  accomplishment  of  all  its 
ends  generic  and  specific. 

"5.  The  quality,  measure  and  scope  of  the 
Inspiration  of  Scripture  are  determined  by  the 
vital  relations  of  the  process, 

^  a )  To  the  Spirit  of  God  as  the  source  of 
the  record. 

(<5)  To  the  men  of  God  who  as  filled  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  were,  in  whatever  way,  con- 
cerned with  the  preparation  of  the  record. 

(c)  To  the  spiritual  contents  of  the  record 
as  factors  of  a  Divine  Revelation  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  world. 

((^)  To  the  spiritual  functions  of  the  re- 
cord as  the  divinely  appointed  medium  for  the 
production  and  culture  of  the  spiritual  life  in  the 
hearts  of  men. 


MEMORIAL    OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  227 

"Based  more  especially  on  the  three  great 
loci  classici:  1  Cor.  ii.  4 — 16,  2  Tim.  iii.  15 — 17, 
2  Peter  i.  21." 

How  many  times  have  I  learned  new  lessons 
from  his  lips,  as  we  have  conferred  together  as 
brethren,  rather  as  pupil  and  teacher,  respecting 
some  difficult  portion  of  the  sacred  word!  How 
often  have  we  heard  him  in  this  place 
set  forth  divine  truth,  derived  directly  from 
the  Bible,  in  such  ways  as  to  fill  us  all 
with  a  new  thrilling  sense  of  what  that  word  is 
and  may  become  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  those 
who  believe!  His  insight  into  the  Scriptures 
was  something  wonderful,  and  his  power  to  de- 
scribe what  he  saw  there  was  scarcely  less  won- 
derful. Above  all  men  that  I  have  known,  he 
was  the  man  of  one  book,  and  that  book  was 
none  other  than  the  Holy  Book  of  God. 

While  Dr.  Evans  was  not  inclined  to  take 
an  active  part  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  he  was 
ardently  devoted  to  the  Church  he  served,  and 
thoroucrhlv  believed  that  in  rendering  such  ser- 
vice  he  was  doing  the  best  thing  possible  for  the 
whole  Church  of  God.  He  believed  in  a  free, 
growing  Christianity,  and  always  rejoiced  in  the 
fact  that  American  Presbyterianism  is  so  largely 
animated  by  this  progressive  temper,  and  is  in 
such  high  degree  representative  of  the  best 
thought,  the  highest  purposes,  of  evangelical 
Christendom.  He  welcomed,  for  example,  the 
mpveinent  for  the  revision  of  our  theological  stand- 


228  THIRTY   YEARS    IN   LANE. 

ards,  and  heartily  seconded  what  had  been  done 
on  that  line,  while  still  desiring  other  and  lar- 
ger improvements,  so  far  the  Church  could  give 
its  consent.  So  he  rejoiced  in  the  improving 
activities  of  the  denomination,  and  hoped  for  the 
time  ^when  its  blue  banner  should  float  freely 
among  the  various  banners  of  the  one  grand 
army  of  grace  in  every  section  of  the  Continent. 
He  was  indeed  no  noisy  ecclesiastic,  filling  the 
air  with  lofty  pretensions,  or  aspiring  for  prom- 
inence, or  figuring  as  a  shrewd  manager  of 
church  affairs,  as  if  the  welfare  of  the  denomi- 
nation depended  on  his  adroit  handling.  But  in 
a  far  higher  and  better  sense  he  was  a  true 
churchman,  loyal  in  spirit  and  faitliful  in  service 
as  God  appointed  him,  even  to  the  end. 

Would  that  it  were  within  my  power  in  this 
brief  paper  to  portray  as  he  deserves,  not  ^  the 
theologian,  or  the  exegete,  or  the  churchman, 
but  the  man  himself,  both  as  he  was  constituted 
by  nature,  and  as  he  became  under  the  decisive 
action  and  impress  of  grace.  Some  of  us  re- 
member the  lithe  and  elastic  form  and  move- 
ment of  his  earlier  years,  his  fondness  for  athle- 
tic games,  his  horseback  galloping,  his  vigorous 
walk,  his  keen  zest  in  all  physical  life  and  ac- 
tivity. And  we  know  how  this  was  symbolic  of 
a  kindred  interest  in  all  that  pertains  to  human 
life  along  higher  lines.  It  was  instinctive  with 
him  to  be  a  man  among  men,  sharing  cordially 
in  their  works,   their    joys,    their    sorrows.     For 


MEMORIAL    OF    PROFESSOR    EVANS.  229 

reasons  which  are  not  fully  known  to  me,  he 
did  indeed  withdraw  himself  more  and  more 
from  that  kind  of  contact  with  the  world  which 
he  must  have  enjoyed  keenly  in  his  youth  and 
earlier  manhood.  There  is  a  difference  which  I 
cannot  explain  to  myself  between  the  young 
temperance  orator,  the  competing  poet,  the  plat- 
form speaker,  the  zealous  legislator,  the  secular 
editor  and  chronicler  of  daily  events,  and  the 
quiet,  reserved,  rather  seclusive  scholar  of  the 
last  two  decades.  There  have  been  times  when 
I  have  thought  in  my  heart  that  he  was  not  ready 
enough  to  join  hands  with  others  in  a  common 
work,  to  stand  by  them  in  even  urgent  strife,  to 
show  all  men  what  he  really  felt  in  specific 
crises,  individual  or  public.  But  I  am  sure 
that  though  he  followed  some  deep  impulse  of 
his  nature  in  seeking  retirement  rather  than 
publicity,  seclusion  rather  than  struggle,  he  was 
never  indifferent  to  affairs,  never  selfishly  un- 
concerned respecting  anything  that  involved  the 
well-being  of  his  fellow-men.  He  was  full  of 
the  fine  instinct  of  humanity  to  the  last  ;  tender, 
courteous,  sympathetic,  yet  courageous,  reso- 
lute, true  to  the  truth,  and  ready  to  face  any 
peril  in  the  interest  of  humankind.  Looking 
down  to  the  bottom,  you  could  not  fail  to  see 
that  he  was  through  and  through  a  man,  and  a 
manly  man. 

It  may  be  that  his   deepening  religious    ex- 
perience teaded  somewhat,  as   all    deep     experi'? 


230  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  LANE. 

ence  tends,  to  bring  about  the  progressive  segre- 
gation to  which  I  have  ventured  to  refer. 
Doubtless  the  increasing  feebleness  and  disabil- 
ity of  these  later  years  compelled  him  to  retire 
more  and  more  from  life,  and  to  live  more  and 
more  within  himself.  Yet,  he  walked  alone 
very  much  because  like  Enoch  he  walked  with 
God.  His  life  was  a  hidden  life  largely  because 
it  was,  like  that  of  Paul,  a  life  hid  with  Christ. 
There  lies  on  my  table,  as  I  write,  a  vol- 
ume of  the  poems  of  Frederick  William  Faber, 
belonging  to  him,  whose  marked  passages,  evi- 
dently read  over  and  over,  and  sometimes  com- 
mitted to  memory,  have  been  to  me  a  kind  of 
revelation  as  to  the  nature  of  the  spiritual  ex- 
perience which  bound  together  as  by  some 
sacred  band  the  author  and  the  reader.  No  one 
could  be  much  in  contact  with  Dr.  Evans  with- 
out realizing  how  deeply,  thoroughly  Christian 
he  was  in  thought,  in  sentiment,  in  purpose  and 
aspiration.  His  studies  were  visibly  transmuted 
into  experiences,  and  were  constantly  blossom- 
ing out  into  prayers  whose  sweep  and  pathos 
had  for  all  who  shared  in  them  a  holy  charm. 
His  life  as  a  disciple  of  Christ  was  a  continuous 
benediction,  growing  richer  and  sweeter  to  the 
last. 

As  the  end  of  life  drew  near,  and  he  be- 
came conscious  of  the  physical  dissolution  im- 
pending over  him,  he  said  less  and  less  about 
l>jmse]f  and  his  religious    thoughts    and    aspira- 


MEMORIAL    OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  231 

tions.  I  wish  for  our  sake  that  it  had  been 
otherwise.  One  precious  revelation  came  to  us 
all  in  his  conduct  of  a  funeral  service,  just  be- 
fore his  departure  for  Wales,  and  especially  in 
his  tender  words  touchingr  Him  whom,  like 
Luther,  he  loved  to  call  the  Lord  Christ — the 
Lord  of  human  life  in  all  aspects,  and  therefore 
the  Lord  over  and  in  all  human  sorrows.  It 
sounded  to  many  of  us  as  if  it  were  his  own 
farewell  to  earth,  and  his  own  trustful  Alleluia 
as  he  was  ascending  to  his  Savior  and  his  God. 
The  end  was  not  far  away.  The  stormy  voy- 
age across  the  Atlantic,  the  welcoming  voices  of 
old  friends,  the  attacks  of  illness  once  and 
again,  the  selection  of  the  new  home,  the  con- 
templation of  the  new  work  which  he  was  never 
to  do,  the  alternating  hopes  and  fears  as  the 
days  and  weeks  of  enfeeblement  went  on,  and 
at  last  the  quick  summons  of  the  Master  in 
the  night  watches,  and  the  exchange  of  the 
morning  dawn  of  earth  for  the  morning  dawn  of 
heaven — this  was  the  end.  And  so  he  passed 
from  the  labors,  the  sufferings,  the  vicissitudes 
of  this  present  transitory  life  to  be  forever  with 
the  Lord. 

Rarely  has  any  theological  institution  been 
called  to  suffer  such  a  series  of  bereavements  as 
have  befallen  Lane  Seminary  during  the  last 
five  and  'twenty  years.  The  paralysis  and  con- 
sequent retirement  of  Dr.  Allen  in  1867,  fol- 
lowed by  his    dcc^th  in  1870,  the  decease  of  Dr. 


232  THIRTY  YEARS    IN   LANE. 

Thomas  while  in  the  midst  of  active  service  in 
1875,  the  like  decease  of  Dr.  Smith  in  1879,  the 
loss  of  Dr.  Humphrey  in  1881,  and  of  Dr.  Eells 
in  1886,  make  up  certainly  a  very  remarkable 
record.  All  were  men  of  worth  and  power,  and 
with  one  exception,  all  were  at  that  useful  stage 
of  life  where  another  decade  of  useful  labors 
might  have  been  anticipated.  Yet,  God  thought 
it  best  to  call  them  one  by  one  away  from  the 
spheres  in  which  we  would  have  wished  to  de- 
tain them,  and  though  the  successive  attacks  of 
their  removal  have  seemed  to  shake  the  Semin- 
ary to  its  very  foundation.  And  now  the  name 
of  Dr.  Evans  is  to  be  added  to  the  starred  list, 
youngest  but  one  in  length  of  days,  but  longest 
of  all  in  his  term  of  service,  prostrated  while  at 
the  full  acme  of  his  powers  and  capacity  for  use- 
fulness ;  a  man  unlike  any  of  his  sainted  associ- 
ates, yet  surpassed  by  none  of  them  in  scholar- 
ship or  w^orth,  and  as  deserving  as  any  of 
thoughtful  commemoration  while  Lane  Seminary 
shall  survive. 

How  ardently  he  loved  the  Institution  in 
whose  service  one-half  of  his  life  had  been  spent, 
how  loyal  he  was  to  its  best  traditions,  how 
faithful  to  its  interests  so  far  as  these  were  com- 
mitted to  his  keeping,  how  true  to  his  associates 
in  the  Faculty,  how  manly  in  all  his  bearing  and 
fellowship  here,  it  would  be  superfluous  in  me 
to  say.  Believing  as  he  did  that  there  is  enough 
in  any  of  these    departments    of    instruction    to 


MEMORIAL    OF   PROFESSOR   EVANS.  233 

command  all  the  time  and  all  the  abilities  of  the 
most  competent  mind,  he  never  frittered  him- 
self away  in  miscellaneous  affairs,  or  accepted 
any  absorbing  external  service,  however  attract- 
ive or  important.  He  loved  the  Seminary  well 
enough  to  give  the  whole  of  himself  to  it,  in  en- 
tire sincerity  and  devotion.  With  all  schemes 
for  the  diverting  of  this  school  of  the  prophets 
from  its  original  design,  as  representative  of  a 
catholic  and  irenic  type  of  Calvinistic  belief, 
and  as  a  school  for  the  training  of  men  who 
should  preach  with  power  a  pure  and  a  free 
gospel  of  the  Pauline  cast,  he  had  no  sympathy 
whatever.  Loyalty  to  the  Institution  just  as 
Christ  -had  organized  it,  and  just  as  the  fathers 
had  constructed  it,  was  with  him  not  only  a 
duty,  but  a  sacred  passion.  Whether  any  ever 
did  more  for  it,  none  loved  it  more,  or  more 
purely,  as  none  ever  served  it  better.  And 
while  Lane  Seminary  keeps  green  the  memory 
of  those  who  had  given  themselves  loyally  to 
its  advancement,  it  can  never  forget  the  name 
of  him  who  was  the  first  Alumnus  in  its  Fac- 
ulty, and  the  longest  in  service  in  the  long  line 
of  its  honored  and  sainted  teachers. 


ADSUM 


I. 

Present,  O  Lord,  Thy  servant  stands 

And  waits  the  call  from  thee  ; 
Whatever  falleth  from  Thy  hands 
My  lot,  my  joy,  shall  be  : 

Alleluia, 
II. 
Present,  O  Lord!  for  Thy  dear  claim 

I  set  the  world  aside — 
To  live  for  Thee,   to  wear  Thy   name. 
And  in  Thy  love  abide  : 

Allelina. 
III. 
Present,  O  Lord!  Thy  work  to  take. 

And  faithful  still   to   be, 
Since  work  is  bliss  for  Thy  dear  sake, 
Wherever  done  for  Thee  : 

Alleluia. 

IV. 

Present,  O  Lord,  to  wear  the  cross 

Thou  givest  me  to  bear  ; 
For  if  I  bear  the  pain,   the  loss, 

I  shall  the  glory  share  : 

Alleluia. 

V. 

Present,  O  Lord!    I  humbly  wait 
So  near  Thy  blessed  home  ; 

Open,  I  pray,  the  heavenly  gate, 
And  bid  Thy  servant  come  : 

Alleluia — Amen. 


In  compliance  with  current  copyright  law,  the 
Library  Bindery  Co.  of  PA  produced  this 
replacement  volume  on  acid  free  paper  to 
replace  the  irreparably  deteriorated  original. 

2002 


13B92UI    24j 

.  .     ,  M    f%r^  nni  on        VI      W 


Princeton  Theological  Seniinary  Ubraries 


01310 


